Recovery Time

The recovery for something in trigger finger depends on what treatments you had. Typically, treatments like splinting take a couple of weeks to really improve. Oral anti-inflammatories usually take a couple of weeks as well. Treatments like a cortisone injection in the hand typically only take 24 to 48 hours before a patient’s symptoms really start to improve. With surgery and release of the trigger finger, typically patients get better almost immediately. Patients, even in the recovery room at the hospital typically note no more triggering of their finger as they move it. Some surgeons will even wake the patient up during the operation to ensure that there is no triggering. Typically the recovery then just involves the healing of the skin, which is 10 to 14 days after surgery. This can become a hardship to patients that use their hands to do their job. For example, trigger finger in a manual laborer may impair his hand enough that he could not complete his job and may impose financial difficulties on him and his family. If that’s the case, typically surgical intervention is recommended for a more speedy recovery.