Patient preference for trigger finger treatment

Trigger finger is a common disorder of the hand that can cause disabling symptoms. Treatment options range from conservative management with observation and splinting, to surgical release, but there is currently not a consensus on a treatment algorithm.

To determine patient preference for the treatment of trigger finger using an online survey.

An online crowdsourcing platform, Amazon Mechanical Turk, was used to recruit participants for this study. Participants were led through a scenario in which they were diagnosed with trigger finger. They were then asked to rank their preference of treatment options from the following: Observation, splinting, corticosteroid injection, surgery. The results of the surveys were then analyzed using R software.

Of 323 participants completed the survey. 7 participants were excluded because they failed to correctly answer the attention question, leaving 316 participants whose results were included. As a first choice for treatment 117 (37%) of the included participants chose observation, 86 (27%) chose splinting, 61 (19%) chose corticosteroid injection, and 52 (16%) chose surgery. The mean rank for observation was 2.26, for splinting was 2.30, for corticosteroid injection was 2.53, and for surgery was 2.91. The ranking of each treatment option was statistically different (P value < 0.05) from the others except for observation and splinting.

The practice of shared decision making with patients is imperative to providing the best care possible. The results from this study, especially the preference for less invasive treatment, may help providers better frame discussion around treatment options of trigger fingers. This in turn, may increase patient satisfaction in the treatment of trigger finger.