Can mallet finger still be fixed weeks or months after the injury?

Picture a fingertip that droops and will not straighten. A mallet finger happens when the tendon that straightens the tip of a finger tears, or pulls off a small piece of bone, often when a ball or an edge jams the fingertip.¹ The tip droops and you cannot straighten it on your own.

The ideal is to be seen within a week of the injury.¹ If that window has passed, it is still worth coming in. When the injury is to the tendon alone, Dr. Knight does not usually recommend surgery. A small splint called a Stack splint holds the fingertip joint straight for about eight weeks while the tendon heals, and he says that can still work after a delay of a month or two.

The splint has to be worn full time for six to eight weeks, including while you bathe.¹ If you take it off to clean the finger, hold the fingertip straight with your other hand the entire time.¹ If the fingertip droops at all, healing is disrupted and the splint has to stay on longer.¹

If a sizable piece of bone came off with the tendon, Dr. Knight usually performs surgery, and it goes best within a few weeks of the injury. An x-ray shows whether a piece of bone came off and whether the joint has been pulled out of line,¹ so book even if weeks have gone by.

Same day appointments are often available at our Plano office on Tuesdays and our Southlake office on weekdays, and the x-ray that shows whether bone came off is taken on site. Finger injuries from work are seen as workers' compensation cases. The splint and the surgery are covered on our page about mallet finger treatment.

• The tip of a finger droops and will not straighten on its own.
• The injury was weeks ago and the finger still droops.
• The finger is swollen or bruised after a jam, which may mean a fracture.