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Trigger Finger Treatment
Transcript:
Wally: Dr. Boyer was referred to me by other members of the medical community, actually, that I was familiar with at a gym that I belonged to. And they referred him as one of the premiere hand surgeons in the entire area. So I contacted him and we got to know each and meet with each other and he checked out my hands and recommended that there'd be treatment for my Trigger Finger Syndrome.
Dr. Boyer: Wally had a condition named a Trigger Finger and what that is, is it's a tightening of one of the structures in the hand that keeps the tendons which are the things that move your fingers down close to the bone, and they're necessary so that the function of the tendons are preserved and so that a strong grip can be made. Sometimes, when that structure which is in the shape of the tunnel becomes too tight or fibrotic, what happens is, is the tendon gets caught under the tunnel and you get a popping of the tendon in the hands. Something like this where the tendon gets caught up in the palm and can't straighten out fully without a pop. So that's something called Trigger Finger. Often times, the patient will have tenderness, sometimes the finger will be swollen, the hand will have generalized pain and the function will be decreased.
Problem was becoming a daily phenomenon. He was waking up with his finger down, he was waking up with pain and he found that in the morning unless he ran his hand under hot water, unless he really massaged it a lot, that it was getting in his way during his daily activities. He's an attorney. He also is a retailer and he found, he just couldn't do everything he had to do during the course of the day with this bothersome element in his hands, so he decided to come in and have it treated. He tried cortisone shots which we've given him. They've been successful in the past, but he didn't want to go down that route again.
Wally: And he comes in and he's asked me finger is and I told him it was pretty painful then I asked him about my thumb. I said, "Yeah, all of a sudden that's starting to bother me." He looks at it. He goes, "Well you got trigger finger, you want to do both of them at the same time?" So I said, "Sure, why not?" So went through it, simple surgery. Staff was wonderful. The facility was wonderful and I was in and out, hour and a half, two hours.
Dr. Boyer: The pulley which is the tunnel as identified and then cut and then the tendon is taken through a range of motion to make sure that there's no more clicking, locking or catching present. The wound is then closed and a light dressing is applied.
Wally: He's a funny guy. He has a quirky sense of humor, but he's brilliant and he knows what he's doing and he'll take you through everything you need to know and he doesn't rush you out the door. If you need to talk to him, if you have questions, he will answer them so you haven't got no problems with Dr. Boyer.
Dr. Boyer: I see a lot of people with Trigger Fingers, about 100 to 200 patients a year. Invariably, most of them will get treated with corticosteroid injection or a steroid shot, but sometimes they'll need an operation and probably about a third to a half eventually come sort of surgical treatment.
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