I had a patient come in today ask about treating her mild-moderate case of trigger finger.
Here’s what I’ve learned about treating trigger finger… not much.
It’s one of those things that I’ve been reliably unsuccessful at getting positive results on.
If you are happy to see patients come in with trigger finger because you’re good a treating it. I’d love some pointers.
Hi Michael! This isn’t a Sa’am treatment, but I’ve had great success resolving trigger finger, even a pretty severe case, by needling bound-up areas of tissue/trigger points along the flexor digitorum and other forearm flexor muscles. Also gua sha on the palm of the hand and anterior forearm…
Hi @dcantor
While we do have categories here specifically for Saam, in time this discussion forum will be for anything that has been on Qiological.
Like this troublesome question I had.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have a patient I can try this with
I have not had good experiences treating trigger finger. These often develop in people who have high blood sugar or insulin resistance generally. A lot of my patients do not like the strong local needling into the palm of the hand, so I’ve stopped doing much of it. I think these patients really need to get their blood sugars under control and optimize their health in every way possible, such as losing weight, in order for the acupuncture to work well. I also think that using things like strong liniments with strong massage-type techniques can be helpful. But the best results that I’ve seen are from the simple surgery that can release the finger. Sorry.
@Aculaura this is interesting. Most of the people that I’ve seen this in are not dealing with blood sugar issues. With the exception of one. At least without going through my clinical notes.
More often I seen this with people that are kind of kind and blood deficient.
Hi Michael,
I have a patient who is a male hair stylist in his 50’s and has trigger finger on his right hand. I haven’t tried Saam on this patient as I just recently started learning the Saam system. This patient sees me about once every 3 weeks to work on his hand. I basically relax (drain) shortened middle finger flexors and activate (supplement) middle finger extensors. He had tried massage with no change, but responded very well to local acupuncture. I do make sure to guasha both anterior and posterior forearm muscles right after the needles are out. In the last couple of treatments though, I have mostly focused on finger extensors and he still had very good results.
Hope that helps 
From a channel perspective it sounds like Pericardium excess and SJ deficiency. So you would tonify SJ on the opposite side of the body.
Did you ever find something to work for this patient? I had a patient with trigger finger (R side thumb and middle finger) that I could not successfully treat. She is very thin, dry and hot. She seems stressed and busy (work and kids) but with plenty of resources. She has a lot of difficulty sleeping. She also had L medial epicondylitis. I tried, SP+, BL+, PC+, LV+ and probably more, always on the left. BL always cools her in a wonderful way. One time she came in with her hand in a lot of pain and PC+ immediately relieved it but it lasted for only a few hours. Then PC+ never worked again. Sometimes treatments would help but never in a lasting way. I was definitely using needles that were too thin and wonder if that was the problem.
@michaelmax Bleed Lu5 w a bleeding needle, not a lancet.( looks like a mini harpoon)
sorry, not samm
Toby has admitted that finger issues aren’t his specialty.
Taibei or Beijing…, I think Beijing, want some?
Any chance you can get more of those bleeding needles? sally@sallyrappeport.com I just read this thread and I have a tendency to get trigger fingers so would love to try it. Thumbs were the worst. About a year ago started in my left pinky but I’ve just ignored it as it’s SOO much less troublesome than my thumbs were. Treatment helped the non-dominant side but my right thumb didn’t respond to anything and I regretfully got a cortisone shot eventually which finally worked.
Hi Jeffrey,
Are you familiar with the hollow bleeding needles sold by Golden Needle and Acurea?
https://www.goldenneedleonline.com/Bleeding-Needle-Hollow.html
If so, are they comparable in function to your special bleeding needle?
Thanks!
