Some of the more common things that we see on hand surgery are carpal tunnel; everybody’s heard of that. Another nerve compression called Cubital Tunnel that is actually compression of a nerve at the elbow. Of course, we see a lot of people with arthritis. And then one thing that’s probably one of the more common things we see are actually people with trigger fingers.
Triggering actually occurs right here in the palm of the hand. And what happens is as people bend their finger down, it gets stuck. And instead of going up smoothly, it snaps open. And when you put your hand right on that pulley where the tendon is getting caught, you can feel it popping and catching. And often you feel a nodule in that area.
There are a few options. A lot of people try splinting trying to keep their finger straight at night. The next option of the splinting doesn’t work is trying a steroid injection into that area. And if that doesn’t work, surgery is the final solution.
I think some of the most important things people can do is take a break during the day, stretch their hands. People, when they’re sitting at a desk, when they’re doing repetitive type work, they don’t think about what they’re doing with their hands. They’re in the same position all the time. And it’s really important just to pause during the day.
It’s not a huge stretch, but just stretch the fingers out like this and then all the way down, just stretch it out, extend your wrist and flex your wrist. It just keeps things moving a little bit so that you don’t tighten up.
