When should splint treatment start for a tendinous mallet finger? A retrospective review of 319 fingers.

In a 5-year retrospective review of 319 tendinous mallet fingers, we focused on the result after splint treatment. The splint we used was a 'no pressure' thermoformed customized Stack splint. The patients wore it strictly for 8 weeks. Based on the Patel criteria, we obtained 91% good or excellent results and 9% fair or poor results. The rate of excellent results increased significantly (p < 0.001) when treatment started 20 days after the trauma. Patients were 13 times more likely to have good or excellent results with a delayed treatment. We noticed that inflammation in the distal interphalangeal joint seemed to be detrimental to the healing process. We suggest assessing if there is inflammation to anticipate the failure of treatment, which will lead to a longer treatment. Further studies on the subject should confirm this.