Trigger Finger
What is a Trigger Finger?
Trigger Finger is a common and treatable condition. It is a painful condition when your fingers get stuck in a bent position, and you feel the sensation of locking and catching when you bend or straighten the finger. It causes pain and stiffness in your fingers and can occur either in one of the fingers or in multiple fingers and even in both hands at the same time.
This condition of the trigger finger is also known as stenosing tenosynovitis. It is more likely to occur in women and people with diabetes. Also, when the same condition occurs in your thumb, it is called Trigger Thumb.
A trigger finger occurs when inflammation in the affected finger causes the space to narrow within the sheath surrounded by the tendon. It happens when one of the following situations occurs:
- The tendon enlarges
- The lining increases its thickness
- The pulley becomes thicker
At Saqsham Ortho, the best orthopaedic hospital in Gurgaon, we have specialized doctors who have 20+ years of experience in the treatment of Trigger Finger Conditions. With our approach of using the latest tech trends, we diagnose Trigger Finger Conditions and provide trigger finger treatment physiotherapy for a speedy recovery.
Causes of Trigger Finger
Our specialist doctors state the following factors that cause Trigger Finger:
- People have medical conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, or diabetes.
- People who are involved in jobs or activities where repetitive movements and forceful use of fingers are required.
- People aged between 40 – 60 years.
What are the symptoms of a Trigger Finger Injury?
Our specialists suggest you visit our super-specialized Saqsham Facility immediately if you observe any of the following symptoms:
- Pain and stiffness in your finger
- A Clicking, popping or snapping sound and sensation while the finger movements
- A locked finger in the bent position
- Tenderness around the finger joints
- Bump at the base of the affected finger
How can Trigger fingers be diagnosed?
Our specialist doctors do not conduct any X-rays or lab tests to diagnose the trigger finger. They talk to you about your symptoms and conduct a physical examination.
- During the physical examination, our specialists look for:
- Thickening level of the tendon sheath
- Tenderness around the flexor tendon sheath
- The level of the trigger while bending or straightening fingers
What are the Treatment Options for Trigger Finger?
At Saqsham Ortho, Best based on the level of severity of your symptoms. Our various solutions are:
- Therapy / Non-Surgical Treatment
Our initial treatment is the non-surgical treatment. In this, we recommend you to go for the following solutions:
- Rest: Give proper rest to your hands and fingers by avoiding activities that require repetitive gripping.
- Splinting: The swelling in the fingers causes even more pain and locking during the night. We provide you with a designed splint to keep your fingers still. Wearing this splint at night helps to keep the affected finger in an extended straight position for up to six weeks. It helps to give rest to the tendons of your finger.
- Exercises: We teach you some gentle stretching exercises that help to improve finger mobility. These exercises will also help to decrease the pain and stiffness of the finger.
- Steroid Injections: We give you Corticosteroid injections (steroid shots) into your tendon sheath that are anti-inflammatory agents when you face critical symptoms. These injections take from one day to several weeks to solve the trigger problem. We do not give steroid injections to diabetic patients as it is less effective for them.
- Medication: We recommend you take Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen or naproxen to get relief from the initial pain and inflammation. However, it does not provide relief to the swelling of the tendon sheath.
- Surgical Treatment
Our specialists provide surgical treatment only when the symptoms are too severe and the non-surgical treatments fail to solve the trigger condition. There are two types of surgeries that we provide for trigger finger:
- Percutaneous release:
In this surgery, our specialists first numb the palm of your hands and insert a sturdy needle into the area around your affected finger tendon. We then move the needle and your finger to loosen the constriction of the tendon that blocks the motion and thus making it work smoothly. We use ultrasound controls to make the needle tip visible to the naked eye. It ensures to keep the needle away from damaging the nearby nerves and your tendons. We conduct this surgery in our ortho facility rooms to avoid unnecessary disturbances.
- Surgery:
In this surgery, our orthopaedic surgeons make a small incision near the affected finger’s base that opens the tendon sheath. We perform this surgery to release the A1 pulley that blocks the tendon movement. This release makes the flexor tendon glide easily.
Surgery Recovery
After our surgery treatment, we encourage our patients to try and move the fingers to check the recovery condition of the finger. However, recovery is not immediate. The severity level of your trigger and the treatment method decides the recovery duration after the surgery. You might observe soreness in your palm after the surgery, which is normal. The swelling and stiffness take months to go away completely.
We suggest our patients take anti-inflammatory drugs and trigger finger treatment physiotherapy to reduce the after-surgery pain and also wear a splint for the next six weeks to heal. We recommend the exercise of raising your hand above your heart to ease the swelling and pain.
Trigger Finger is a condition that we observe very commonly and get a lot of patients with this condition. At Saqsham Ortho, we provide our patients with advanced trigger finger treatment solutions. Our team of experts and specialists prioritize the patients and their health. If you have any symptoms of the trigger finger, then book an appointment with our specialists, and they will give you the best treatment.
At Saqsham, we care for your well-being and strive to bring you the best orthopaedic care and solutions. If you are experiencing any hand and wrist issues and would like to get a medical opinion,
we’d suggest you book an appointment.