Complaints & connections · borters.ch
The tendon catches in its narrow passage and snaps — usually easy to treat.
Also known as: trigger finger · stenosing tenosynovitis · snapping finger
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The flexor tendon thickens or its pulley narrows, so the tendon catches when bending. The finger snaps, locks or stays bent and releases with a painful jerk; worst in the morning. More common with diabetes, hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis and repetitive strain. Usually treatable (splint, cortisone injection, minor surgery). See a hand surgeon if a finger stays locked.
Both concern the gliding of a tendon, only at different places: the trigger finger in the palm, the tendon sheath inflammation on the thumb side of the wrist.
A targeted cortisone injection resolves the snapping lastingly in a large share of people, often after the first one. It is the step that comes before any operation.
Sleeping with bent fingers means waking with the worst locking. A small splint that immobilises only the base joint improves this over weeks.
Tools with thin handles, holding scissors for long, gripping hard: thicker grip padding spreads the pressure. That is relief, not rest — the finger should keep moving.
With long-standing diabetes the picture appears considerably more often, frequently on several fingers and together with other hand troubles. A single look at the long-term sugar is worthwhile.
A finger that can no longer be straightened passively should not stay that way for months — the joint capsule shrinks with it. That is the point at which the procedure becomes the simpler solution.
A cortisone injection into the tendon sheath resolves the snapping in about six to nine out of ten people, often within one to two weeks; with diabetes it works less often. It reduces the swelling, it does not remove the thickening — which is why it returns in some within a year, and a second injection works less well. A splint over six to twelve weeks is the route without a needle. Anti-inflammatory tablets do little here.
About two to three in a hundred people are affected, up to one in ten with diabetes. Thumb, ring and middle fingers are most often involved. The snapping arises because the tendon has to slide past a thickening through a pulley — it is worst in the morning, because the swelling increases overnight. A cortisone injection works within one to two weeks in six to nine out of ten; with diabetes less often and for less long.
The finger catches briefly when opening the hand and then jumps out with a jerk — often audibly. Most often affected are ring finger, middle finger and thumb.
After waking the finger is stiff and catches most; during the day it loosens. Some have to straighten it with the other hand in the morning.
At the base of the affected finger a tender thickening can be felt that moves with bending and straightening. It is the thickening of the tendon itself.
In Dupuytren a firm cord pulls the finger slowly and painlessly into bending, without snapping. Here it is a catching with a jerk and usually with pain.
Low values are common with raised body weight because the vitamin is bound in fat tissue. Correcting it makes sense; as a means of losing weight there are no studies.
Involved in the action of insulin inside the cell. With poorly controlled sugar it is lost through the urine — a circle that can be closed.
Metformin lowers the uptake measurably over years. With tingling in the feet under this treatment B12 belongs checked before it is put down to nerve damage from the sugar.
They slow the uptake of sugar from the meal and satisfy for longer. Pulses, oats, vegetables and wholegrain work differently from a powder out of a tin.
The snapping does not come from the joint that snaps, but from a thickened ring ligament in the palm — that is also where it hurts on pressure. That is why a splint holding the end joint at night works, and why no joint capsule works.
No influence on the ring ligament. What actually counts here: the trigger finger occurs distinctly more often in diabetes and then responds less well to injections — the blood sugar is the value that really explains something here.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
With diabetes trigger finger occurs several times more often, often on several fingers at once, and it responds less well to the cortisone injection. Getting it without overuse is a good reason for a sugar value.
An underactive thyroid also makes tissue in tendon sheaths and the wrist swell. Together with carpal tunnel and stiff fingers that forms a picture a single value can settle.
In diabetes trigger finger occurs several times more often, frequently on several fingers at once. That is one reason to measure blood sugar with this finding.
Splinting and gliding exercises help in early stages. If the finger catches or locks completely, the injection or small operation works more reliably.