Broken Pinky Finger - Post Surgery Stiffness

[imq]

I had surgery done on my broken pinky finger on January 1, 2008, which I broke while playing football, and I was in the cast for 6 weeks after that. After the cast came out, the doctor told me to go to therapy for 6 weeks/ 2 times a week to get rid of the stiffness in the finger. Now it is May 5th, 2008 and I have 2 more weeks of therapy left but still the finger is a little stiff. I can bend it but not fully and in terms of going back up it doesn't move at all.

The therapist has told me that doctor's could do another surgery to loosen up the tendons but I will wait to ask a doctor until my therapy is done.

The questions that I had is:

1) What are the chances that I can still gain full momentum in my pinky finger?
2) If I am not able to get the stiffness out, can anyone tell about the surgery the therapist was talking about?

Greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks

[Onthesameboatasall]

Hi everybody I fractured my right middle phalange and finger in a oblique way in middle of August. My two options were to get surgery to make it straight or leave it and it'll heal crooked. I went ahead with the surgery and he placed two pins in order for it to become straight and heal correctly. 3 weeks after, i went to my first check up and he unwrapped my finger and pulled out the pins.

I was shocked and pretty pissed to see that the x-ray and my actual finger looked the same as it did before surgery! My OT told me the pins i guess was unsuccessful with making it straight and that my finger healed back that way.. So this whole time i have been going to PT and i have decided two weeks prior that i wanted to do surgery again to make it straight. He said he would have to re break my finger and he'd have to put a screw in order for it to heal straight and said everything would be okay. But as you can see above, he said that before and he was wrong BIG TIME!

So my surgery is tomorrow and i have just barely came upon this forum.. its so hard to find any information about this topic! But anyways after reading all of this I am thinking about cancelling the surgery due to this forum of people saying there is a HIGH chance of me not getting my ROM back at all.

The only and pretty much MAIN reason i want surgery is to make my finger straight again because when i make a fist it bends to my right about 15 degrees.

My range of motion is about 85% back and i can pretty much touch my palm.

I needed suggestions on my decision..  like i said my ROM is pretty good its just that my finger is still crooked! and after reading all of this people are stating that there is a very high chance my motion wont come back! and to top it off the re breaking the finger part sounds like it'll have a bad effect on me in the future..

I can still do surgery to it but for now i believe I'm going to cancel  the surgery for tomorrow. Reply back please on whether i should go ahead with the surgery or just leave my finger as crooked as it is with pretty good ROM.

Thank you all!

[shrbr31]

Sorry, cut myself off short. Anyway... So he told me to massage that scar where the pins are and to make sure I stretch the tendons to get movement in there. Well it's been 9 days and I still can't straighten my pinkie. To hold my hand out flat pointer and middle fingers are fine of course. My ring finger I can straighten out the whole way but it's just barely level witht the rest of my fingers and my pinky just kind of hangs there. I can raise the first knuckle level with my hand but no further. The middle part of my pinky I can raise about a little and can't raise the tip at all. I've been flexing and stretching and massaging as much as possible and it doesn't seem to be working. I'm scheduled to go back Oct 18th (4 weeks after cast and pin removal) and I'm somewhat iffy about waiting another three weeks to find out what's wrong if I could have done something about it in the meantime...  
Thanks in advance :)

[shrbr31]

Hello all!
On august 18th I broke my 5th metatarsal (neck fracture). Went straight to the ER. There they confirmed it was broken, wrapped it in a splint with pinky and ring finger splintered together. That was on a Saturday and that following Monday I saw a hand specialist and he suggested surgery because of how it was broken. So I had surgery on that following Thursday and had two pins inserted through the skin into the metatarsal. He put a splint on that immobilized the pinky and ring fingers and then two weeks later I went back to make sure all was healing ok and then got a fiberglass cast on that immobilizedthe same way for two more weeks. Went back and got the cast off and pins removed. Weird experience but of course I was stiff but I expected that. The surgeon told me to start massaging that scar so that it wouldn't fuse together with the joint or tendons. At the time I wasn't thinking much of it and that I wouldn't have issues as long as i did what he said.

[dsrgw]

I broke my pinky just below top knuckle and had a little chunk of floating bone as well as some twisting towards the outside. Had closed reduction with K-Wire fixation. Wires came out 5 weeks after they got put in. Doc told me to go to PT, but never went. Insurance didn't cover it and it wasn't cheap. Doc told me to keep using my other hand to move it. About a week after the K-wires were removed there wasn't much progress on range of motion. Then i was riding on a bus holding the handle with my hand with the broken finger. All healthy fingers were griping normally but broken pinky was sticking straight out in its locked position. Bus driver took a turn way too fast and I squeezed that handle for dear life. Right about then I felt a sharp pain in my knuckle and heard a very loud pop in the joint and it soon after really swelled up a lot. I thought it was trouble but the next day when I woke up I had gained about 40 degrees of motion so I figured I was on the right track. After that I pretty much squeezed on whatever there was around until i got more of those popping sounds. It hurt but my range of motion gradually returned. A year after the break I can just touch the top of my pinky (above last knuckle) the the bottom part (just above the palm) but there is some pain and stiffness everyday (particularly in the morning until i take a minute or two to force it to my max range of motion). But it still swells up a lot and I can hear some grinding and cracking going on in the joint when I force it beyond its now comfortable range of motion.

For other people who have had a similar break, what is a good result? I was hoping for better, but I am pretty much completely functional for all activities although there is the daily discomfort which is annoying. So it definitely could be worse. Also at this point i still constantly try to force it beyond its comfortable range of motion. It is just force of habit now since I did it pretty much non stop after getting the wires out. Does that still do any good at this point or am I just damaging stuff? I still feel some pain applying pressure to both joints or when creating resistance against me squeezing the finger closed and my grip strength in that finger is definitely lower. Will trying to continue to exercise grip strength there eventually help to get beyond that stage of pain when fighting against the resistance? I am just trying to figure if continuing to put effort into this would be of any help or if I should force myself to abandon the habit if its bad for my finger.

Lastly I saw you all mentioning regaining mobility while in a K-Wire. I was never in a cast, just gauze dressing, but whole finger was completely immobilized by K-Wires. How can you practice mobility when it has been completely stabilized like that? Doc never mentioned anything like that to me and I am wondering if I missed out.

[Colnago_Rider]

"seemed shock to discover"?? Really? I'd run as fast as you can from this moron. 7 weeks fully splinted and he's shocked?

How can the DIP still be broken? Was it not set properly to begin with?

An aggressive course with a certified hand therapist might be your only hope. If that doesn't work, you'll probably need surgery (joint contracture release surgery) and probably tenolysis on the flexor tendon. And then more OT with a CHT.

[scribblegurl]

Unlike most of you guys, I broke the DIP on my index finger. It's been splinted for 7 weeks, and my ortho seemed shocked to discover I can't make a fist, as the PIP won't bend more than 90 degrees.  I tried to passively bend it while it was splinted, but I didn't start doing that until it had been splinted for 2 or 3 weeks.  The DIP is still broken, but the doc wants me to go without the splint most of the time.  I'm worried that if I do that, I'm going to end up with permanent mallet finger.  What should I do?  I've been working at bending the PIP, and I got a little range of motion back, but still not much mre than 90 degrees, and after reading here, I'm worried the DIP will lock up (if it hasn't already).  This is my dominant hand, so I really need my stupid finger.  Ideas/advice?