[The results of surgical and nonsurgical treatment of mallet finger].

INTRODUCTION: The injury of the hand tendon classified as mallet finger presents the loss of continuity of the united lateral band of the extensor apparatus above distal interphalangeal joint, which consequently leads to specific deformity of distal interphalangeal joint which is called mallet (hammer) finger.

OBJECTIVE: Our paper had several research objectives: presentation of the existing results of surgical and nonsurgical treatment of mallet finger deformities and comparison of our findings and other authors' results.

METHOD: The study was retro-prospective, and analyzed 62 patients treated in the Clinical Center of Serbia in Belgrade (at the Institute of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, and the Emergency Center) in the period 1998 to 2003. The follow up of these patients lasted at least 8 months (from 8.3 months to 71.7 months). An average follow up was 28.7 months. The objective parameters used in the study were as follows: sex, age, dominating hand, hand injury, finger injury, mode of treatment, complications, distal interphalangeal joint flexion and total movement of the distal interphalangeal joint. Collected data were analyzed by chi2-test and Student's t-test. The confidence interval was p = 0.05.

RESULTS: A total range of motion was 51.9 +/- 6.6 for nonsurgically treated patients, and 48.2 +/- 4.2 degrees for operated patients. Mean extension deficit of the distal interphalangeal joint was 6.5 +/- 3.3 for nonsurgical and 10.0 +/- 3.2 for operated patients.

CONCLUSION: The results confirmed that nonsurgical mode of treatment of mallet finger deformity was much more successful than surgical method of treating the same deformity.