Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Nov 18, 2022; 13(11): 1006-1014
Published online Nov 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i11.1006
Patient preference for trigger finger treatment
Christian Blough, Jawad Najdawi, Stuart Kuschner
Christian Blough, Jawad Najdawi, Stuart Kuschner, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, United States
Author contributions: Blough C and Kuschner S designed the research study; Blough C and Najdawi J performed the research study and analyzed the data; Blough C and Kuschner S prepared the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was exempt from IRB review as described in 45 CFR part 46. Participants were made aware of the voluntary nature of this survey and the data was collected in a way that the subjects’ identity could not be ascertained by the researches.
Informed consent statement: An online, survey based, descriptive study was performed through the use of a crowdsourcing website, Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT). Participants for this study were randomly recruited through AMT.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Christian Blough, BSc, MD, Surgeon, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 444 S. San Vincente Blvd Suite 603, Los Angeles, CA 90048, United States. christian.blough@cshs.org
Received: July 11, 2022
Peer-review started: July 11, 2022
First decision: September 26, 2022
Revised: September 28, 2022
Accepted: October 27, 2022
Article in press: October 27, 2022
Published online: November 18, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Trigger finger is one of the most common hand disorders that can lead to debilitating symptoms.

Research motivation

To provide increased insight to providers treating patients with trigger finger to better allow shared decision making.

Research objectives

To determine patient preference for the treatment of trigger finger.

Research methods

An online survey was perfomed using a crowdsourcing website. Participants were led through scenarios regarding the symptoms of trigger finger and treatment options. They were then asked questions regarding their preferred treatment.

Research results

Of 316 participants results were included. 37% of the participants chose observation as their first choice, 27% splinting, 19% corticosteroid injection, and 16% surgery. The mean rank of each treatment option was statistically different from the others, except for observation and splinting.

Research conclusions

Patients may have more of a preference for less invasive treatment of trigger finger. This information can help providers better frame discussions around shared decision making with patients.

Research perspectives

Further research is needed to better understand patient factors that effect treatment choice.