This article was published on: 08/23/21 10:01 AM
A trigger finger is a painful condition that makes your fingers or thumb catch or lock when you try to bend them. It may affect any finger or more than one finger at a time. You can also have it in both hands. Stenosing tenosynovitis is the medical term for trigger finger. You might notice a painful clicking or snapping when you bend or straighten your finger. It is worse when your finger’s been still and it gets better as you move it. You may experience stiffness in your finger, especially in the morning, soreness, or a bump at the base of the finger or thumb, a popping or clicking as you move your finger, or a locked finger that you can’t straighten.
The treatment options for trigger fingers are stretching, ice, and oral anti-inflammatory medications.
The quickest and most effective treatment is a local cortisone injection into the tendon sheath around the affected tendon. Most patients may respond well to the steroid injection.
A trigger finger is most likely to recur after a period of normal function. If a trigger finger persists after
two steroid injections and is not responsive to the nonsurgical treatments, consider surgical
procedures to release the tendon sheath or remove the inflamed or scarred tissue. Trigger finger
surgery is usually a permanent solution for this condition.
Initially, people can treat trigger fingers at home with remedies including cold packs, resting, over-
the-counter medications and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Massaging the involved area of
the palm gently followed by a cold pack application can be very helpful. Be careful to avoid reinjuring
the strained tendon in the palm.
Trigger finger is generally less common in children than in adults but sometimes young children,
between the age of six months and three years, develop it. It is likely to affect the child’s ability to
straighten their thumb but it’s rarely painful and usually gets better without treatment.
