PURPOSE: To investigate patient-reported symptom relief day-by-day and the use of postoperative analgesics after open trigger finger release. The primary outcome of this study was the number of days to resolution of pain. Secondary outcomes were the use of analgesics and the number of days to complete resolution of stiffness and triggering. METHODS: In this prospective, multicenter cohort study, a total of 107 adult patients with clinically diagnosed trigger finger were included. Patients recorded daily visual analog scale scores for pain and any presence of residual stiffness and/or triggering for 6 weeks after surgery. Daily use of analgesics was also documented. RESULTS: Ninety-nine patients (92.5%) sent in follow-up forms. Three patients (2.8%) sent in incomplete forms, leaving 96 with complete data (90%). At the 6-week follow-up, 61 patients (64%) reported complete relief of all symptoms. The median number of days to total symptom relief was 11 days for pain (range 1-39, n = 74), 12 days for stiffness (range 11-39, n = 64), and instant relief of triggering after surgery (range 1-36, n = 77). Median number of days for analgesics usage was 1 for paracetamol and 0 for ibuprofen; 19 patients (20%) did not take any analgesics. CONCLUSIONS: Open release is an effective treatment for trigger finger with limited need for nonprescription drugs, since almost all patients reported full resolution of triggering within 6 weeks, and analgesic use was minimal. However, 23% of the patients reported persisting pain and 33% residual stiffness at 6 weeks, indicating that the recovery process is longer than expected. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic 2b.
Bitar et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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