How to Treat A Jammed Finger

You’re slipping through the defence, dribbling the ball between both your own and the opponents’ legs when a hand comes out of no where and slaps the ball right into your index finger. The pain strikes immediately, you look down – your finger looks fine but there’s an agonising pain running through your hand. Soon after it swells. You stop and realise – you have now succumbed to, undeniably, the most frustrating injury in basketball, sport, or possibly history: the jammed finger.

What’ so annoying is that it seems like such an insignificant injury – but you’ve been chastised from the game of your life by a rebounded ball or a poorly timed catch; and that’s no champion ending. A jammed finger is the worst type of injury. On the other hand, what’s great is, a jammed finger doesn’t have to be the end. Treat it properly, and you’ll be back on the field in no time.

The jammed finger is archetypically swollen, hard to bend, and somewhat painful. As with most minor sporting injuries, RICE treatment is your first port-of-call; that’s of course assuming you don’t have a physiotherapist or orthopaedist to hand. The injury is usually located in the knuckle, where the blunt of the trauma is experienced. The most common form of injury sustained in this field is a volar plate injury.

When the ball hits the finger head on, collateral finger ligament can rear at the attachment at the volar plate (which is a thick ligament on the palm side of the joint) and the middle phalanx. A piece of bone is torn away by a tendon or ligament, which provokes the symptoms aforementioned. Any injury that causes hyperextension of a ligament can end in a tear of the volar plate.

It is important to evaluate the jammed finger quickly as the avulsion fracture may indicate major ligament damage, which if left alone will develop into long-term pain and stiffness. When an accident in the realm of description above occurs, the most important thing to do is check what has happened. If your finger looks crooked, dislocated, or is unbearably painful the chances are you have broken your finger or something more serious. If this has happened, you should contact your physician immediately to avoid any irreparable trauma.

If you suffered from a jammed finger, or if you suspect your finger has sustained more serious damage and would like to speak to one of our physicians, please contact our switchboard at (212) 241-6321