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What is Trigger Finger?
Occupational Therapist Vinnie Chiu discusses trigger finger, its symptoms and risk factors, and possible treatment options available.
Featured Speaker:
Vinnie Chiu
Hsien-Chih "Vincent" Chiu is the backbone of our Outpatient Occupational Therapy Clinic at Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute. As an Occupational Therapist, Vinnie helps our clients of all ages improve their abilities or adapt their environment to conquer all of life's challenges. Vincent joined our team in 2017 and has dedicated himself to improving his skills and has advanced his professional practice towards becoming a Certified Hand Therapist. Transcription:
Intro: Progressive, respectful, mentoring, compassionate. These are the values of Palmdale Regional Medical Center. And now, we proudly present Palmdale Regional Radio.
Caitlin Whyte: This is Palmdale Regional Radio. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. And today, we are discussing trigger finger with one of our occupational therapists, Vincent Chiu. All right, Vincent, get us started here on this topic. What is trigger finger?
Vinnie Chiu: Trigger finger is your finger locked in the bending position and your finger can not be straight. So the trigger finger is caused by swollen tendon that allow your fingers to bend. If you look into your hand, like we have the tendon that helps our fingers to close or open and the tendon in your hand passes through the protective tunnel. The tendons slice through the tunnels, like the rope goes through the pulley system. If the tendon has inflammation, part of the tendon is inflamed and is swollen, it looks like the knot on the rope. The rope there with the knot on it will be hard to go through the pulley system and sometimes it locks. That's what happens to our finger. Tendon is swollen and it cannot go through the tunnel, so people start to feel like their fingers lock. So that's the trigger finger.
Caitlin Whyte: Are there any other symptoms besides obviously the finger in a locked position that would give us a clue that we might be suffering from this tendon issue?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. So for the trigger finger at the beginning, you will feel like your finger is stiff and joints are really tight and is hard to move particularly in the morning. So a lot of my patients told me they feel like their finger is really stiff in the morning. And then, they get worse, like people start to have creaking or catching in their fingers. You still can bend your fingers down, but it's really hard to get it opened again. Sometimes you need to use the other hand to hold your finger to be straight. And it can be really painful when your finger locks. And if you have trigger finger, typically it will be in your middle finger or your ring finger. They are the most common.
Caitlin Whyte: All right. Middle finger, ring finger. I'm looking at my hand right now. So Vincent, what are some risk factors for trigger finger?
Vinnie Chiu: The first, if you use your hand a lot or your job or your hobbies involve repetitive hand use and gripping, that may increase your risk to get a trigger finger. And also, the people who has like diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, they are at higher risk of getting trigger finger. And also the trigger finger is more common in women.
Caitlin Whyte: So if we get down to the point where our finger is locked in that position, like you were saying, how can it be treated?
Vinnie Chiu: So there are like different treatment options. The first thing you need to do is you need to let your finger rest. So when you start to have the creaking or the popping feeling in your fingers and it hurts, just don't continue to creak it, it just don't do it any more, don't play with it. It won't go away if you keep doing that. You only make your finger to be worse and you have more pain in your hand.
What you can do right now, like you put the ice pack on for 15 minutes and then let it rest. And if you come for the therapy, we will make splint for you. So the patient, they wear the splint at night to keep their fingers straight at night, so your finger has the chance to rest. And also, we also show people how to do the stretching exercise. For the stretching exercise, what you can do is you can put your palm up and you reach to your finger from the underneath and you hold your finger down into extension and to stretch out the tight flexor tendon. And you can do that like 10 times a day. And if using the ice, using the splinting, doing the stretching exercise is not helping you and maybe the doctor will say, "Okay, let's try to do the cortisone injection or let's do the surgery. Relax." But we hope like, people don't need that.
Caitlin Whyte: Yeah. Well it sounds like rest is a big factor here. Is there anything else we can do to prevent trigger finger, to prevent getting to the place where we need to splint?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. Okay. So to prevent trigger finger, the most important thing is don't overuse your hand. So you try to avoid repetitive gripping. So you take a break, you use the hand tools or the proper body mechanic for reducing the possibility of the trigger finger.
Caitlin Whyte: Great. Well, Vincent, as we wrap up here, is there anything else you want people to know about trigger finger and hand health?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. I just wanted people to know if you have the symptoms of the trigger finger, just try to get help from your doctor right away. Because we see a lot of patients, the patient comes in and then they say, "Hey, look at my finger. I have trigger finger," and they just keep playing with it. They just like keep bending the finger and then make it pop, make it to be locked. But if you keep doing that, it only makes it to be worse. It won't get better.
Caitlin Whyte: And that concludes another episode of Palmdale Regional Radio with Palmdale Regional Medical Center. Thank you for joining us today, Vincent.
You can call (661) 206-6250 for more information. That's (661) 206-6250. Or visit us online at palmdaleregional.com/roi. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all of the other Palmdale Regional Medical Center podcasts. And make sure to please share on your social media and be sure to check out all the other interesting podcasts in our library. For more health tips and updates, follow us on your social channels. And thank you for listening.
Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Palmdale Regional Medical Center. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians.
Intro: Progressive, respectful, mentoring, compassionate. These are the values of Palmdale Regional Medical Center. And now, we proudly present Palmdale Regional Radio.
Caitlin Whyte: This is Palmdale Regional Radio. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. And today, we are discussing trigger finger with one of our occupational therapists, Vincent Chiu. All right, Vincent, get us started here on this topic. What is trigger finger?
Vinnie Chiu: Trigger finger is your finger locked in the bending position and your finger can not be straight. So the trigger finger is caused by swollen tendon that allow your fingers to bend. If you look into your hand, like we have the tendon that helps our fingers to close or open and the tendon in your hand passes through the protective tunnel. The tendons slice through the tunnels, like the rope goes through the pulley system. If the tendon has inflammation, part of the tendon is inflamed and is swollen, it looks like the knot on the rope. The rope there with the knot on it will be hard to go through the pulley system and sometimes it locks. That's what happens to our finger. Tendon is swollen and it cannot go through the tunnel, so people start to feel like their fingers lock. So that's the trigger finger.
Caitlin Whyte: Are there any other symptoms besides obviously the finger in a locked position that would give us a clue that we might be suffering from this tendon issue?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. So for the trigger finger at the beginning, you will feel like your finger is stiff and joints are really tight and is hard to move particularly in the morning. So a lot of my patients told me they feel like their finger is really stiff in the morning. And then, they get worse, like people start to have creaking or catching in their fingers. You still can bend your fingers down, but it's really hard to get it opened again. Sometimes you need to use the other hand to hold your finger to be straight. And it can be really painful when your finger locks. And if you have trigger finger, typically it will be in your middle finger or your ring finger. They are the most common.
Caitlin Whyte: All right. Middle finger, ring finger. I'm looking at my hand right now. So Vincent, what are some risk factors for trigger finger?
Vinnie Chiu: The first, if you use your hand a lot or your job or your hobbies involve repetitive hand use and gripping, that may increase your risk to get a trigger finger. And also, the people who has like diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, they are at higher risk of getting trigger finger. And also the trigger finger is more common in women.
Caitlin Whyte: So if we get down to the point where our finger is locked in that position, like you were saying, how can it be treated?
Vinnie Chiu: So there are like different treatment options. The first thing you need to do is you need to let your finger rest. So when you start to have the creaking or the popping feeling in your fingers and it hurts, just don't continue to creak it, it just don't do it any more, don't play with it. It won't go away if you keep doing that. You only make your finger to be worse and you have more pain in your hand.
What you can do right now, like you put the ice pack on for 15 minutes and then let it rest. And if you come for the therapy, we will make splint for you. So the patient, they wear the splint at night to keep their fingers straight at night, so your finger has the chance to rest. And also, we also show people how to do the stretching exercise. For the stretching exercise, what you can do is you can put your palm up and you reach to your finger from the underneath and you hold your finger down into extension and to stretch out the tight flexor tendon. And you can do that like 10 times a day. And if using the ice, using the splinting, doing the stretching exercise is not helping you and maybe the doctor will say, "Okay, let's try to do the cortisone injection or let's do the surgery. Relax." But we hope like, people don't need that.
Caitlin Whyte: Yeah. Well it sounds like rest is a big factor here. Is there anything else we can do to prevent trigger finger, to prevent getting to the place where we need to splint?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. Okay. So to prevent trigger finger, the most important thing is don't overuse your hand. So you try to avoid repetitive gripping. So you take a break, you use the hand tools or the proper body mechanic for reducing the possibility of the trigger finger.
Caitlin Whyte: Great. Well, Vincent, as we wrap up here, is there anything else you want people to know about trigger finger and hand health?
Vinnie Chiu: Yeah. I just wanted people to know if you have the symptoms of the trigger finger, just try to get help from your doctor right away. Because we see a lot of patients, the patient comes in and then they say, "Hey, look at my finger. I have trigger finger," and they just keep playing with it. They just like keep bending the finger and then make it pop, make it to be locked. But if you keep doing that, it only makes it to be worse. It won't get better.
Caitlin Whyte: And that concludes another episode of Palmdale Regional Radio with Palmdale Regional Medical Center. Thank you for joining us today, Vincent.
You can call (661) 206-6250 for more information. That's (661) 206-6250. Or visit us online at palmdaleregional.com/roi. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all of the other Palmdale Regional Medical Center podcasts. And make sure to please share on your social media and be sure to check out all the other interesting podcasts in our library. For more health tips and updates, follow us on your social channels. And thank you for listening.
Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Palmdale Regional Medical Center. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians.