Until recently I never heard of Trigger Finger. For those that don’t know, a finger can either lock in a position or catch while it’s moving.
My cousin developed trigger finger and his doctor sent him to see an occupational hand therapist. This involved doing hand exercises a couple of times a day for a month or two. Also wearing a split at night when he sleeps to give the finger that has the problem a rest.
When hand therapy was finished he said it didn’t work for him. I looked up the condition and apparently it’s cause by inflammation in the hand. The cause of it some places claim can be from gripping and others say there is no known cause for it. But my cousin said the hand exercises didn’t help with the trigger finger, so off to another doctor to get a steroid injection in his hand. He tells me that this doctor said the hand exercises don’t help with trigger finger although the split can help in some. Which of course questions why the family doctor said to go get hand therapy if it doesn’t work for trigger finger.
The hand surgeon told him, if the injection doesn’t work giving it like 2 weeks, then he should consider surgery to fix the trigger finger.
Anyone have trigger finger? Do you have a cure for it? If so, what worked? Does a hand therapist work for trigger finger ever? Does simply allowing it to rest in a split work and if so how long did you allow yours to rest before the trigger finger disappeared? Do injections work for people, or is that temporary or has no effect? Or does everyone who has trigger finger eventually end up getting surgery to fix the problem?
For those of you that had surgery to fix trigger finger, how were your results and how long ago did you have the surgery?
It runs in my family - I don’t have it, but my sister did and both of my children did - in all three of these cases, an operation at around age 7* fixed it permanently.
*That’s just how old they were when it developed to the point of requiring surgery; as I understand it, the operation is pretty quick and has a high success rate at any age.
I had it in two fingers for a few months when I was in my early twenties. It was caused by a summer job where I spent eight hours a day using a mattock. If I bent my right (I think) index and middle fingers, they wouldn’t straighten again; I had to use my left hand to straighten them out.
I never bothered going to a doctor or using a splint or anything. It just went away after a few months - I don’t remember exactly how long. It’s never happened since.
Mr. Athena had this; he got the injections, they worked for a while, but it eventually came back. A short outpatient surgery fixed it permanently. It wasn’t a big deal at all.
I had trigger finger about 6-7 years ago, had the injection and no physical therapy, which heavily improved symptoms but didn’t make it go away, so I had a second set of injections which didn’t significantly improve matters Since it wasn’t bothering me too much I decided not to bother with surgery. I stopped thinking about it and it went away on its own at some point.
Then a year ago I had an accident that required surgery to fix a severed tendon and damaged nerve in my finger. After some time in a splint and with physical therapy the trigger finger returned. But this time a single injection seemed to have stopped it for good.
I never heard of using physical therapy to treat trigger finger, and the hand therapist I was seeing for my tendon just suggested I get an injection the next time I had follow up appointment with the hand surgeon, she also remarked that it was to bad that I had forgotten about the trigger finger when I had my tendon surgery or else I could have asked the surgeon to fix the trigger finger at the same time.
After 25 years of playing guitar without proper warmup, and 20 years of working at a computer, I developed flexor tendinitis, AKA trigger finger, in the ring finger of my right (and therefore mousing/fretting) hand. It would be locked in place every day when I woke up, hurt like shit, etc. Sleeping with it splinted only meant it was frozen straight instead of curled when I woke up, and was equally painful to deal with.
After a year or so of it getting worse and worse, I went to an orthopedist who specializes in hands. First line of action was a daily regimen of NSAIDs (over the counter Naproxen every day for a few weeks). When that didn’t work, second line of action was a cortisone shot right in the fucking tendon. Ouch. I could hear adhesions crackling and popping in my hand as he pumped it in.
When that only helped for a day or two, final course of action was surgery. Surgery took place in the office (and therefore only cost me a $40 office copay rather than a fat bill from a surgery center), under local anesthesia, and only took about ten minutes. It fixed it instantly and it’s been perfect ever since. I have been a hearty evangelist for the tendon sheath release surgery ever since; I wish I had done it earlier.
From what people are saying here and what I found online it looks like the injections to treat Trigger Finger is the conservative approach. There are people who get the injection and that seems to take care of it for them. I found it interesting that one person said that after a while it went away on its own.
I was starting to wonder why people don’t get referred to have surgery when Trigger Finger is diagnosed, but it isn’t the same as treating someone with a broken leg where there is a obvious and immediate need of treatment. I guess using a hand occupational therapist is similar to going to a chiropractor for back pain, where it might work for some conditions and not for others.
My cousin said he doesn’t have pain in his finger unless he’s doing something like making the bed when he pulls the sheets. I guess he could give it time provided it isn’t damaging anything by putting off the surgery. But it sounds like from people’s experiences that the surgery isn’t that big of a deal to do.
In it’s inflammation and a steroid injection into it reduces that inflammation and puzzled why this doesn’t work on everyone?
I think the most annoying part about it for him, was having to wear the splint in public and people continuing to ask what happened to his hand.
I was recently treated for this. No PT, got the steroid injection and it worked fine, although it took about a week or so. Just this week the symptoms have come back. My orthopedic doctor says the injections work for more than half the patients, so it’s worth trying before resorting to surgery. If it doesn’t clear up on its own I will probably try the injections again and if it still comes back too soon will request the surgery.
I have had it four times in the past 10 years. It alternates between middle finger and ring finger on my left hand. I am right handed.
I have had the injections from a hand surgeon each time. He did mention the last time, about a year ago, when he injected in the palm for the middle finger, that I will probably need surgery to permanently correct it.
It’s back now in the ring finger and I am procrastinating the inevitable. Some days, it is nearly impossible to make a fist or to uncurl the finger once I do bend it. Plus, it’s painful when the tendon snaps.
I’ve had trigger finger and trigger thumb. An injection worked for a while, but I wound up with surgery on both.
I preferred the surgery. It’s permanent (triggering was a huge annoyance), it’s no big deal for recovery (much less than carpal tunnel, which I’ve also had), and it’s less painful.
When you were taking Naproxen, did that ever make the symptoms (catching and locking) of Trigger Finger go away, even temporarily? Or was it only to manage the pain?
Sorry, I missed that the last post in the thread was pointed at me.
My orthopedist said that NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen act primarily as pain relievers when taken sporadically, but when you take enough to maintain constant steady state levels for a week or so, they begin to act as anti-inflammatories as well. (My regimen was two Aleve in the morning and one in the evening for two weeks.) He said that that regimen was enough to alleviate trigger finger in maybe 5-10% of his cases, and he would prefer that over a more invasive/expensive solution if it did work.
In my case, it did not help, even when paired with heat, ice, vibrating massage, and better warmup habits before playing the guitar, which is why my case progressed to the cortisone shot and thereafter to surgery.
I had trigger finger (both thumbs two years apart). I had surgery right away which permanently fixed the problem for me. I miss telling my joke though: when asked what was wrong with my bandaged appendage, I’d say “I have trigger finger - don’t piss me off”
I have it and it’s caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Has your friend been tested for that? The medication you take for RA can help with the inflammation that causes trigger finger. It’s hardcore medication that you wouldn’t take if you didn’t have RA, though, in case you were wondering if it’s another option (it’s low-dose chemo).
I have a splint (not split) that I wear overnight and have occasional steroid injections. They haven’t worked so far because the underlying problem is still there. Surgery on the hand always carries the danger of damaging the nerves in the hand, which is why they don’t go to it immediately, and if the cause is something ongoing like RA or another inflammatory disorder then it might well come back again anyway. So basically there is sometimes a cure but it depends on the underlying cause.
