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

[Dkot]

Hi

[Tuapiro]

To straighten the finger again is difficult, the extensor tendon does not have much power and cannot glide if there is much scar tissue. You should ask a hand therapist for exercise, basically you should keep trying to straighten the finger, and also to straighten it and then try to hold it in place (to try to get the tendon to move through the scar tissue to hold the finger without the added work of actually moving the finger). Also make sure you can passively still straighten the finger so the joint itself is not resisting.

[GiantBlue76]

Hi harry,

Don't give up.  I started playing guitar back in 2008.  However, in 2002 I broke my left ring finger playing football.  It was a bad break at the DIP joint, through the joint causing angulation and malrotation.  Well, I went tot he doc and they splinted it to avoid surgery.  I didn't know anything at the time.  it healed, but it healed crooked.  My ring finger bent OUT towards the pinky about 20 degrees.  I learned to live with it, and I even learned how to play guitar with it.  In 2013 I had an osteotomy done where the surgeon actually took a wedge out of the tip of my ring finger, derotated it and bent it further back towards my middle finger.  This corrected the angulation about 15 degrees.  What an improvement.  Is it perfect?  Absolutely not.  I have minor arthritis there, some annoying pain at times, and it still is off by a few degrees.  However, I regained all of my ROM back.  Despite destroying that joint, I can bend my ring finger almost a full 90 degrees at the DIP joint.  This was after having a pin in my finger for 5 weeks.  Your hands adapt very well.  Even if your finger next becomes "normal", you can still be a proficient player.  I play in a band every week and I play guitar every day.  Sometimes I get annoyed with it, but only because of how it looks. :-)  In reality, it doesn't affect my playing.  I can do lots of fast lead runs and can form pretty much any chord without issue.  If I can do it, you can too.

[sleepystories]

A dog leash broke the middle bone of my little finger on my right hand. I needed surgery as the finger would have healed malformed. My surgeon used a screw to secure and keep the bones in place.  

After surgery I wore a dressing for five days and had to avoid using the finger.Once the dressing was removed I had to keep moving the finger but no gripping or weight bearing for three weeks, then I could start gripping but limit myself by how painful the action was.

The finger was never splinted and at 8 weeks post surgery, my finger has full movement. I am still advised not to do any heavy work, until the finger is completely healed.  I am going to ask to have the screw removed as its head is by a joint and is painful were it sticks out covered by skin.i have another appointment in June to discuss this.

The most annoying issues with this healing process are not being able to drive due to gripping the steering wheel, being guided by pain, knocking the finger amazing how many times I did this, people not realising as there was no splint, the finger just looked swollen and bruised. But  I have full movement in the finger and IMHO a little time of frustration is good trade.

This was all done on the NHS by a specialist hand surgeon who knew what he was doing. I am very grateful

[finger9]

I broke my pinky on my left hand. I went to my GP and he told me to tape it to the other finger and come see him in a month. I never should have done that the bone kept hitting the other bone and splintered. Make a long story short a had multiple surgeries with an implant being put in. I tried to get my range of motion back with tons of physio but it did not work the implant would squeak and not bend. Amputation was suggested. I said I would think about it.
Well, it is 3 years later and the reason I am writing this is I slipped and stuck my hand out and injured it again. Amputation has been suggested again and I am actually thinking about it as this has become quite painful. I was given 3 options for amputation right at the second joint  where the implant is leaving a stub,right at the base of the finger or complete removal grafting the side with an angle cut so it kinda flows into the ring finger. Don't know what to do just was wondering what everyone thinks.
Really struggling with this.

[brianlivestrong]

I injured my right middle finger while playing basketball. The finger droops badly. I went for the operation 1 week after the accident to have 2 K wires inserted into my finger.
The K wires remained in the finger for 5 weeks and I was advised to wear my splint for the next 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks of splinting (after K wires removed), my finger still droops  a little (around 20 deg). I could't bend my injured finger too. When I close my hand in a grip position, all fingers were are able to bent except the injured finger.

Question 1: Is it normal to have my finger droops after K wires operation for mallet finger?

Question 2: What are the exercises to regain my range of motion.

Question 3: Now my finger still droops after the operation, what are the things I can do so that my finger can be straighten without the droop?