I recently noticed that my two toddlers have trigger thumb. Tendons join muscle to bone and move joints. To glide through the tissues they run in a series of lubricated tunnels.
Trigger thumb occurs when the tendon that moves the thumb gets jammed at one of the tunnel openings.
Treatment involves either gettiing rid of the swelling in the tunnel or making the tunnel larger to accomodate the thickened tendon. This is done either with an injecton into the tunnel or a surgical procedure to open the tunnel. In an adult an injection to reduce the thickened inflammation is often successful and this saves surgery. Surgery, however, is much more likely to be successful in the long term. Surgery involves a relatively small procedure - often done under local anaesthetic in adults but again under general anaesthetic in children.