The PIP joint is prone to both dislocating and becoming stiff and if not treated properly can get stuck in a bent position…the perfect position for getting in the way of catching a ball! The PIP joint has a thick ligament at the front (volar plate) which stops the finger bending backwards but allows it to bend into a fist, and ligaments on each side which stop sideways movements (collateral ligaments, just like the knee!). It is commonly injured in sports such as netball, basketball, cricket and afl (with a huge influx of women’s afl players in recent years!). The middle joint in your finger (known as the PIP joint) is the most commonly dislocated or sprained joint in the hand. Whilst sometimes you can ‘shake it out’ and get on with it, what most people don’t realise is that sometimes it is more than a jarred finger. The sooner we can begin to treat the area, the less likely you are to face long-term consequences of the break.Anyone that has played ball sports has most likely had a ‘jarred’ finger at some point. Make sure to reach out to us here at AICA Orthopedics right away if you have a swollen, red finger that also has some numbness. This is your body trying to tell you it needs help. Any type of numbness in the finger signals a loss of communication between the injured area and your nervous system. It is important to pay attention to these symptoms, especially if numbness also occurs, as there could potentially be nerve damage in conjunction with the break largely caused by the swelling tissue. You may also experience swelling in the surrounding fingers. This could lead to a situation where the bone needs to be re-broken to set it properly, which we would all like to avoid. The problem with that is if the break is held in place poorly, it could begin healing poorly as well. By swelling, your bones are held in place, which can allow for the healing process to begin. It makes moving the finger much more difficult, but it is your body’s way of trying to protect the break. The swelling itself is what limits movement. When you have a broken finger, you will usually see signs within a few moments of the injury, including swelling, bruising, and redness in the area surrounding the break. Some people have a very high pain tolerance, while others simply do not have a painful break that would limit their normal movements. Typically, moving a broken finger will cause a lot of pain, but a break does not necessarily limit motion completely. Regardless of whether you can bend or move the finger or not, there is still a chance that it may have a fracture or a break. The only way to know if the injury will require treatment is to have X-rays done on the finger so that we can determine what type and size of break you face. If the injury is bad enough, these symptoms will not resolve on their own. You may have a broken finger if you are experiencing loss of range of motion, deformity of the appearance of the finger, swelling, redness, or severe pain. Sometimes your fingers can get hurt from falls, getting slammed in something, playing sports, or even regular daily tasks that do not go as planned. These injuries are typically caused by trauma to the finger. By looking at the images, we will be able to determine the full extent of the problem and what needs to be done to treat it so you can begin to feel better.ĭOCTORS What are the Symptoms of a Broken Finger? The injury could range from a simple hairline fracture to a completely shattered bone. The integrity is lost in a broken finger bone. How can you tell if your finger is broken or not? Realistically, you need to have your finger imaged to be able to fully diagnose a broken finger. It is easy to mistake a broken finger for just a bruised finger. Be it a sports-related injury or an accident during your normal daily routine injured fingers are a common occurrence.Īs easy as it is to sustain a finger injury, it is not as easy to diagnose. Our fingers are very fragile during all of our daily activities. Not all symptoms are easy to decipher or point to one specific finger problem. Since our fingers are a part of everything we do, day in and day out, we need to know when to tell if a finger is simply bruised, bent, or completely broken. We may notice soreness on part of our finger or a bruise we hadn’t seen before, but not know where it came from. These injuries can be a bit confusing because the finger is such an intricate area of our body. During any part of our daily routine, our fingers could get bent, smashed, twisted, or injured in some other way. It starts with moving around our blankets to get up out of bed, and runs through food prep, eating, working, and brushing our teeth before we go to bed at night. Most of our day we are using our hands for most every task. Of all the parts of our bodies, fingers are some of the most vulnerable to injury.
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