Best Hand Exercises & Home Remedies for Trigger Finger | Doc Cherry

That was an example of a trigger finger. If you want to know about the effective home strategies to help this condition, stick with me until the end of this video. Greetings again to everyone. This is again, Dr. Sherry, Doctor of Physical Therapy. If you're new here in my channel, please don't forget to click the subscribe and the bell button below so you will be a part of our growing community and you will receive weekly health videos on different home strategies and home exercises that would help different musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions. It will be good for our seniors. It will be good for you and your family too. Do you feel pain when you flex or when you extend your finger? Do you hear a popping or locking sensation, especially early in the morning? If you do, you might be suffering from trigger finger. Trigger finger, or what we call a stenosing tenosynovitis, is a condition that causes pain and inflammation and locking sensation every time you flex and you straighten your finger. Although this can happen to any finger, it is more common for the third and your fourth finger. We all use our hands in our day-to-day activities. Each finger of the hand has the ability to move freely throughout flexion and extension. These movements are made possible by several pulleys on the digit of the hand that coordinates the movement of the muscles in the palmar aspect. With trigger finger, one of the pulleys become inflamed, which makes it hard for muscles to glide through your finger bends. Over time, these tendons themselves may also thicken, leading to the formation of nodule in the surface. Trigger finger is a common condition for those who are in their 50s. It can also coexist for persons who are diabetic, if you are suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis. It is also more common in certain occupations that require prolonged forceful finger flexion. At first, this locking sensation could be painless, but over time, it becomes painful for you. You will also find discomfort in doing different hand activities. If you think you have trigger finger, your symptoms and physical examination will be enough to make the diagnosis. X-ray is no longer necessary. And if you think you have trigger finger, these are the effective strategies that you can do at home to help you manage this condition. What you can do is you can submerge your hand with affected finger in lukewarm water for 10 to 15 minutes. You can do this anytime, especially, for example, if you are done with your work. This will help with circulation and it will improve your range of motion before doing these exercises. These exercises are called the tendon glides. The purpose of this is to promote circulation of blood and also to promote greater range of motion in the flexor tendons, the one affected with trigger finger. So first is we have the hook position. So you want to really mimic the movement of flexion and then the extension of your finger. You do this one 10 times. Next, if you have stress ball at home, you can just use it. So I want you to squeeze it, count seven seconds, hold, and then you do it 10 repetitions. If you don't have any stress ball at home, you can just close your fist and then open like so. This will promote movement in the different small muscles of your fingers. Since majority of the patients will have their finger in a flex position, what you can do is to possibly extend it or possibly straighten it using your opposite finger like so. You can hold this for seven seconds and then we also repeat this one 10 times. Next is we have our abduction exercise. So I just want you to spread your fingers as far as possible to really stretch the muscles involved. So again, we do this 10 times. And then we have three-point closure. So you want to flex your fingers here and then move it to the center of your palm and then as far as you can reach. Do this again 10 times like so. Lastly, we have what we call a myofascial release. So you can feel the nodule at the part of the base part of your affected finger. I want you to palpate the nodule there. Problem with trigger finger is that eventually this area here would have adhesion and scar formation. So to promote healing, we want to break down that scar. You can get any lotion or petroleum jelly and then you palpate the nodule, the painful part in the base of your finger and then try to massage that area. Or what you can do is you look for something, a blunt object in your kitchen and then using 45 degree angle, you can slowly scrape it. You can do this anytime so long as there is no pain. So it's tolerable. So it means it's safe. This will promote healing and this will also promote circulation which would speed up your recovery time. So you can do this anytime, anywhere and then it would also feel good on your end. You can do these exercises 10 repetitions, two to three times a day. What's good with these exercises is they are relatively very simple and easy to do and you can do it anytime, anywhere without any contraindication. It is very important for you to observe what activities makes your symptoms worse and then you try to lessen these activities until the pain subsides. So in rehab, what we usually do is we advise the patient to do splits. The purpose of these splits is to help you position your finger in the neutral position. You can use these splits at night or you can use it anytime until the pain have already subsided. If you don't have any splits at home, just simply look for a popsicle stick and then put it under your affected finger like so and then you tape it. You will keep this in your finger while you sleep or while you are doing your usual activities of daily living. Thank you very much for watching. These are effective home strategies Should you want to have yourself personally checked and evaluated, you can contact any licensed physical therapist or physiotherapist near you or maybe you can go to the nearest rehabilitation hospitals in your place. This is again, Doc Sherry. Stay safe, stay happy and healthy. God bless you.