The Effect of Trigger Finger Injection Site on Injection-Related Pain

Abstract

Background: Stenosing tenosynovitis, or trigger digit, is a common condition for which patients often seek relief. Corticosteroid injections have been shown to provide relief in many cases, and several different approaches for delivering the injection have been described in the literature. We compared patients’ perception of pain following each of 3 accepted injection methods, namely, palmar proximal, palmar distal, and webspace approaches. Methods: We prospectively followed 38 patients with 39 symptomatic digits in this trial, with varying severities of trigger finger as graded by the Patel and Moradia classification. The patients were divided into 3 groups representing the 3 approaches without randomization, based upon the treating surgeons’ preference. Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand and visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were calculated pre-injection and at 4-week and 8-week follow-up visits. Results: No statistically significant differences in age, sex, affected extremity, grade, or duration of symptoms were observed among the 3 approaches. No statistically significant differences in VAS score were found between the palmar proximal (mean = 6.6, SD = 2.6), palmar distal (mean = 6.0, SD = 2.8), and webspace (mean = 6.8, SD = 1.8) approaches. Conclusion: Our data suggest that injection approach does not affect patient pain perception scores or outcomes. We recommend that the technique that is most comfortable to the surgeon be utilized, with the understanding that one injection alone has a low likelihood of relieving symptoms.