ONDAMED Case Studies — Mallet Finger

KK is a 39-year old woman who injured her finger on November 7, 2006.

KK pushed her hand inside where the springs were. KK felt something strange happen when she pulled out her hand from the couch. Her ring finger on her left hand was not straight and was pointing downwards. She had no control over the finger. However, she was not experiencing great pain. The same day she went to her general practitioner who diagnosed mallet finger. Mallet finger is a deformity of a finger caused when a certain tendon (the extensor tendon) is damaged. When a ball or other object strikes the tip of the finger or thumb, the force damages the thin tendon that straightens the finger. The force of the blow may even pull away a piece of bone along with the tendon. The finger or thumb is not able to be straightened. This condition is also known as baseball finger. Her physician immediately referred to a hand specialist the same day who she saw immediately. The specialist confirmed the diagnosis with an x-ray. KK’s finger was put in a splint to heal for 6 weeks.

Approximately every two weeks, the hand specialist would measure the bend in KK’s finger to see if it was improving. She received one Ondamed treatment on November 29, 2006 that was the third week of the splint. She felt a heat radiating through the finger right after the treatment that she described as almost a healing sensation. After 6 weeks the splint was removed but the finger had not improved. At diagnosis KK had a 30 degree bend and now she still had a 20 degree bend. She still could not straighten her finger. The hand specialist offered her two options: surgery or “live with it.” KK read up about the surgery and realized she’d have to be completely incapacitated for many months. So she chose to live with it. The hand specialist told KK to come back if and when she considered surgery since there was nothing more she had to offer.

One week later she received another ONDAMED treatment on December 27, 2006 for the mallet finger. She received two treatments per week from December 27, 2006 to January 4, 2007. After each treatment KK felt heat in the finger that would come and go throughout the day. After the last treatment, her finger completely straightened over the course of a few days and was completely healed.

KK made another appointment with the hand specialist on January 16, 2007 to show her that the finger had completely healed and was straight. KK showed the physical therapist and the physician both hands and neither could tell which one had been the mallet finger. Both agreed that if KK had not shown them the finger neither of them would have believed it was possible that it was straight. KK told them both about the ONDAMED treatment. The hand specialist was very open (as was the physical therapist) to it. The specialist explained that she was starting to use ultrasound for treatment (previously it was only used for diagnostic purposes) and realized that there may be other modalities that could be useful. In any event, both the therapist and the specialist were extremely impressed at the results.

KK’s finger remains perfectly normal and she has full use of the finger and has not required any further treatment.     (Case Study conducted by Dr. Shari Lieberman)