What are the treatments for thumb tenosynovitis?

The thumb is a part of the fingers. Although everyone has 10 fingers, each finger has a different function and has its own tendencies. Among them, the role of the thumb is more important. It is the source of strength for people to grasp objects, and it is also the guarantee of finger flexibility. However, the thumb is also a part that is prone to disease. For example, thumb tenosynovitis is a relatively common symptom that has a great impact on people's lives. The pain of tenosynovitis is quite severe and will cause great pain to patients after the disease. Let's take a look at how to treat thumb tenosynovitis?

1. Closed treatment

It can relieve early-stage tenosynovitis and should be blocked once a week. Generally, blocking treatment methods cause greater damage to local tissues and are prone to recurrence. Severe patients can choose surgical treatment. Finger flexion and extension exercises should be performed early after surgery to prevent tendon adhesion, and manual labor should be avoided within 1 month after surgery.

2. Surgical treatment

After surgery, choose an appropriate splint for fixation. When non-surgical treatment is ineffective, acupuncture or tenotomy may be used. Make an incision at the transverse palmar crease and use vascular forceps to separate directly to the tendon sheath to avoid damaging the digital vascular nerve bundle.

3. Puncture treatment

After local anesthesia, puncture with a thicker needle, extract the cystic fluid, inject it, and then apply pressure bandage. Hormone drugs can have side effects on the body.

For cases with short course and mild symptoms, conservative treatment can be implemented, including using a brace to properly immobilize the thumb, changing the activities and habits that induce the disease, reducing cold stimulation, local hot compresses, physical therapy, and application of topical medications.

4. Acupuncture

Select Yangxi, Yangchi, Hegu, Quchi, Yangque, Shousanli, Lieque, Pianli and Ashi points on the affected side of the patient, perform routine skin disinfection, select Ashi points at the tender points using the surrounding needling method, and after acupuncture has obtained qi, use the method of equal tonification and equal drainage. Moxibustion was applied to Yangxi, Lieque and Yangchi acupoints once a day.