We’ve had some people ask us about ‘trigger finger’ over at our youtube channel. So we wanted to write today’s blog on this topic to help our readers.
Before we answer what ‘trigger finger’ is, let’s have a look at the anatomy of our hands.
Yes we have muscles and tendons in our hands and fingers. More importantly for today’s topic, you can see in the image above these ‘pulleys’. These are sheaths where our tendons run through. These allow our muscle and tendon to control our fingers a lot more effectively and provides our ability to be more accurate in using our hands and fingers.
In Trigger Finger, these sheaths become inflamed and swollen. At this stage, you may only feel a slight discomfort. However, with prolonged aggravation, the tendon itself then becomes inflamed and thickened. This is where things become serious and where most people finally come in for treatment. More severe cases would have the finger ‘stuck’ in a bent position, hence the name ‘trigger finger’.
What do I do?
First of all, it’s important that you stop any hand/finger intensive activities. You need to rest that hand. You will also have to ice the hand diligently, I would suggest every 1 hour for 10 minutes. Depending on the severity, you may do some very gentle stretches, but only up to your comfortable level.
I would suggest seeing your physiotherapist, where they can assess the severity and more importantly, come up with a treatment plan. It is important that you get this looked at and treated soon, as prolonged pain can result in poorer treatment outcome as well as chronic pain and inability to do your normal activities.
At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 1 hour long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!
If you have questions regarding any physiotherapy related concerns, contact us at any of our clinic near you or drop us an email at info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au. We also offer Telehealth Consultation, please check out this link for more information.