Tendon injuries are a fairly common side effect of various sports. Athletes put their bodies under different kinds of unpredictable stresses, with games like football and tennis carrying different risks. And there’s nothing that shows you how much your life depends on your tendons more than seriously injuring one.
Take a jersey finger for example. This is an injury to the finger tendons, typically associated with sports players. Common in athletics, this kind of injury usually occurs when a player grabs someone else’s jersey. The tips of one or more fingers will become hooked on the jersey’s seam before pulling rapidly away with the running player while that player is pulling or running away. This sudden force rips the tendon in that finger and causes a fairly serious injury.
Join us today, at Toby Orthopaedics, for a closer look at this extremely painful and extremely common sports injury.
Jersey Finger Symptoms
Flexor tendon injuries impact our ability to bend and extend our fingers. This is because these are the specific tendons which pull on our hinged phalanges to perform simple movements.
Imagine the hinge on your door if you cut a hole in it with an ax. You’d have more than your fair share of trouble swinging that hinge open and closed. But what are some of the symptoms of a jersey finger injury, specifically?
For starters, this injury typically starts at the tip of the finger and causes the tendon to snap back on itself, like a rubber band. With an uninjured hand, if you hold it without flexing, your natural posture should be slightly curled inwards, as if holding a glass. The tendons, in this case, are perfectly balanced and ready to be engaged, as needed.
When we consider a flexor tendon injury like a Jersey Finger, fingers will often straighten unnaturally. You’ll be able to pick out the affected digits against the other fingers, which remain flexed, slightly. The injured finger will also be unable to bend toward the palm of the hand.
Pain and tenderness round off the list of symptoms that indicate a Jersey Finger injury.
Treatment
In the case of a Jersey Finger injury, surgery is usually recommended to repair the torn tendon. This procedure involves multiple steps, depending on the retraction of the tendon itself, and uses the following process:
- Locate the tendon at the base of the finger
- Thread the tendon into its proper position within the finger
- Reattach tendons to the tips of fingers
Of course, as we’ve said, not every Jersey Finger injury is the same. Typically, each tendon is reattached by use of a drilling into the bone, before securing it and pulling the sutures through the bone. And, depending on the tear and the skill of the surgeon, this can be achieved with varying degrees of success.
Toby Orthopaedics
At Toby Orthopaedics, our transparent retractor unit aids in the passage of the tendon to the repair site. With our high-end components, our components help to minimized soft tissue trauma, reduce surgery times, and facilitate better results.
For more on these and the rest of our amazing orthopedic implant catalog, Visit Toby Orthopaedics today!