Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Finger Injuries and Disorders
You use your fingers and thumbs to do everything from grasping objects to playing musical instruments to typing. When there is something wrong with them, it can make life difficult. Common problems include:
- Injuries that result in fractures (broken bones), ruptured ligaments and dislocations
- Osteoarthritis - wear-and-tear arthritis. It can also cause deformity.
- Tendinitis - irritation of the tendons
- Dupuytren's contracture - a hereditary thickening of the tough tissue that lies just below the skin of your palm. It causes the fingers to stiffen and bend.
- Trigger finger - an irritation of the sheath that surrounds the flexor tendons. It can cause the tendon to catch and release like a trigger.
It sits within Bones, Joints and Muscles and Injuries and Wounds.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Finger Injuries and Disorders
56 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- NAC-REPAIR for Post-surgical PainUniversity of Arizona
- Early Functional Response as a Predictor of Clinical Outcomes in Hand Rehabilitation: A Prospective Feasibility Study Using a Digital Monitoring SystemHacettepe University
- Conservative Treatment of Trigger FingerCedars-Sinai Medical Center
- Operative Treatment vs Treatment With Semi-occlusive Dressing for Single Finger AmputationsTampere University Hospital
- Understanding Patient Preferences When Deciding on a Voluntary Musculoskeletal TestUniversity of Texas at Austin
- Ketorolac in Upper Extremity Tendinopathy and ArthropathyEmory University
Research already completed
- Semi-occlusive Dressing for Pediatric Fingertip AmputationsMedical University of Graz
- Postoperative Experience of 2 WALANT-type Modes of Anesthesia Used in Ambulatory Surgery of the Upper Limb.Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nīmes
- Nylon Versus Chromic Gut Sutures for Minor Hand SurgeryUniversity of Texas at Austin
- Kinesio Taping for Finger InjuriesOnur Gültekin
- Virtual Reality for Pain in Acute Orthopedic InjuriesMassachusetts General Hospital
- Double-dorsal Versus Single-volar Digital BlockAnkara City Hospital Bilkent
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Diagnosis and Tests
- Bone X-RayRadiological Society of North America
- Hand/Wrist/Arm ProblemsAmerican Academy of Family Physicians
- X-Ray Exam: Finger (For Parents)Nemours Foundation
Treatments and Therapies
- Arm, Hand, and Finger ReplantationAmerican Society for Surgery of the Hand
- ReplantationAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- Replantation of digits - seriesMedical Encyclopedia
Related Issues
- What Is a Hand Surgeon?American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Genetics
- Dupuytren contracture: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
- Poland syndrome: MedlinePlus GeneticsNational Library of Medicine
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Dupuytren ContractureNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: ThumbNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Finger Injuries. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Finger Injuries and Disorders, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.