Nonoperative treatment of trigger fingers and thumbs

This article reports our experience with the management of 93 consecutive patients with 108 trigger digits initially treated by triamcinolone acetonide injections into the flexor tendon sheath. It appears that two distinct clinical types of trigger digits exist--nodular and diffuse. Ninety-three percent (63/68) success was obtained in the nodular type compared with 48% (10/33) in the diffuse type (p less than 0.05). We conclude that the patients with the nodular type should be offered a simple cortisone injection. Those patients seen initially with the diffuse type should probably be offered surgical decompression.