Injuries of the finger flexor ligaments: diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Introduction. The hand injury is one of the most common skeletal traumas, with occurrence of up to 50% in various age groups, including children. Among different hand injuries, those accompanied by the finger ligaments injuries make up 1.5-2%, which is up to 21% of all hospitalizations for this injury. Most patients are men, aged 18-45 years old. To choose the best treatment tactics, it is important to estimate the injury character and ligament injury severity. The main intra-operation tasks are providing atraumatic course and the choice of the ligament suture, and the postoperative ones – introducing individual appropriate rehabilitation measures. Objective: to expand knowledge of the medical students, masters, interns, clinical residents and PhDs specialized in “Orthopedics and Traumatology” about treatment of injuries of the finger flexor ligaments. Materials and methods of the study. The literature sources of the Pubmed, Up-to-date, Cochrane library, Science direct and Scopus database have been reviewed using search words “hand, ligament sutures”. Results and Discussion. The decision on the terms of recovery of the flexor ligaments is based not only on the established injury, but assessment of the wound and its characteristics. An important component which provides positive final outcome during operative intervention is assessment of the injured ligament condition and suture choice, which affects the choice and volume of rehabilitation program in a certain patient. Having analyzed modern views and discussions about the ligament suture, one can conclude that no “golden standard” has been accepted yet, which will completely satisfy both a patient and a physician. Conclusion. 1.Injury of the ligaments of the hand finger flexors make up to 1.5-2% of hand traumas, which is represented by up to 21% of such hospitalizations. Regarding the young age of the patients and a significant percentage of unsatisfactory outcomes, the issue calls for subsequent study and improving the treatment approaches. 2. Anatomical and biological knowledge provides for significant decrease in diagnostic errors and the operative intervention traumatic share. The main factor for the operative intervention choice is the ligament suture choice. 3. To provide for the positive final result, an individual rehabilitation program, which depends on the injury type, ligament suture and individual patient characteristics, should be introduced. This is why, to implement it, an orthopedist and rehabilitation physician should cooperate.