Mallet finger is when the farthest joint in a individuals finger has dropped down. The finger can usually be put into a straightened position if it is maneuvered by another person or by another hand (Cooper & Elsevier, 2007). Mallet finger will affect a client’s eating pattern because it would be hard for them to grasp the spoon. With this condition, the client will not be able to fully wrap their finger around an eating utensil or another object in general. Individuals may encounter Mallet finger deformity by doing different types of firm contact with the fingers. A mallet finger injury may occur by a forced trauma to the fingertips when being curled in, or when they are straightened out. Mallet finger may be caused by pulled, torn, ruptured
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Some daily activities would include eating, buttoning clothes, holding small items, and turning pages in books (Reed,2014). What seems like a simple task to individuals with normal bending joints in the fingers are harder tasks for people with Mallet finger. The client may not do tasks that require them to use a strong or forceful grip this will slow down the healing process. Treatment is done by a referring physician and the occupational therapist.
The primary goal of therapy is to promote healing of the tendon improve as much movement of the joint as possible for straightening the fingers, and curling the fingers (Reed,2014). Being that the individual will be able to produce as much function in the joint that they had before the trauma to the joint. Another goal for the client is the prevention of re-injury to the fingers when they are corrected, so they don’t have to repeat …show more content…
Rehabilitation after surgery is mainly to keep the joints moving and preventing stiffness from the joints not being used (Cooper & Elsevier, 2007). Occupational Therapist will teach the client home exercises to make sure the other joints don’t become stiff. Also, the Occupational Therapist will slowly add in exercises to make muscles stronger and moveable. Exercise usually, produces healing and finger extension. A real recovery from this condition is a full extension of the farthest part of the finger and curling of the finger without pain or loss of the length of the extended finger. Bad recovery would be the loss of curling the fingers and pain with the addition of extending the fingers. If the clients farthest part of the finger is still dropping down then, corrective surgery may be needed
Some daily activities would include eating, buttoning clothes, holding small items, and turning pages in books (Reed,2014). What seems like a simple task to individuals with normal bending joints in the fingers are harder tasks for people with Mallet finger. The client may not do tasks that require them to use a strong or forceful grip this will slow down the healing process. Treatment is done by a referring physician and the occupational therapist.
The primary goal of therapy is to promote healing of the tendon improve as much movement of the joint as possible for straightening the fingers, and curling the fingers (Reed,2014). Being that the individual will be able to produce as much function in the joint that they had before the trauma to the joint. Another goal for the client is the prevention of re-injury to the fingers when they are corrected, so they don’t have to repeat …show more content…
Rehabilitation after surgery is mainly to keep the joints moving and preventing stiffness from the joints not being used (Cooper & Elsevier, 2007). Occupational Therapist will teach the client home exercises to make sure the other joints don’t become stiff. Also, the Occupational Therapist will slowly add in exercises to make muscles stronger and moveable. Exercise usually, produces healing and finger extension. A real recovery from this condition is a full extension of the farthest part of the finger and curling of the finger without pain or loss of the length of the extended finger. Bad recovery would be the loss of curling the fingers and pain with the addition of extending the fingers. If the clients farthest part of the finger is still dropping down then, corrective surgery may be needed