Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2007 , Vol 53 , Num 2

Principles of Rehabilitation in Tendon Injuries of Hand

Selma Polatkan 1
1 Klinik FTR, İstanbul

Flexor tendon injures are one of the most frequent problems encountered in hand rehabilitation. Healing and scar tissue cause adhesions and limitation of motion around flexor tendons after surgical repair. It has utmost importance to create a balance between the splinting  necessary for tendon healing and rehabilitation program in order to obtain a good result. Early mobilization programs have usually been designed as passive mobilization or early active mobilization. The main objective in all of these protocols is to obtain maximum gliding on tendon while avoiding rupture, adhesion or lengthening. Extensor tendon injures has been classified in to seven groups on fingers and five groups on the thumb according to the level injury. In mallet finger, extensor mechanism has been disrupted so that distal interphalangeal joint can not extend. Tendon injuries on 3 and 4 zones cause  Boutonnière deformity. Like flexor tendon injuries in zone 2, extensor injuries in zones five, six and seven are difficult injuries for postoperative rehabilitation. Early rehabilitation and mobilization techniques have been described to overcome this problem. 

Keywords : Flexor tendon, extansor tendon, rehabilitation, early mobilizatio