This guide will help you to know what to expect as you work with your healthcare team to manage and treat trigger finger.

You will have your own unique journey with trigger finger. How you move through your journey, the number of visits with your healthcare team, the steps you will take, and the order you take them in will depend on your needs. You will make decisions in partnership with your healthcare team. Always follow your healthcare team’s advice.

What is trigger finger?

Trigger finger can happen in 1 or more of your fingers or thumbs and can be mild, moderate, or severe:

• Mild: Your finger or thumb locks, clicks, catches, or sticks (this is called triggering), but not very often. You can still straighten your finger.
• Moderate: Triggering happens more often and your finger or thumb may sometimes get stuck in a bent position.
• Severe: Your finger or thumb gets stuck in a bent position often. In the most severe cases, you cannot fully straighten or bend your fingers or thumbs.

If you have trigger finger, you may also experience:

• a bump (nodule) in the palm of your hand near the base of the finger or thumb that is affected
• pain and tenderness at the base of the finger or thumb that is affected
• stiffness or loss of motion

Trigger finger symptoms are often worse when you first wake up and may get better during the day.

 

Example of trigger finger affecting the index finger.
Adapted from Lexicomp and UpToDate Patient Handouts: Trigger Finger, by Lippincott Advisor, 2021. Copyright 2024 by Lippincott.

Your fingers and thumbs move when your muscles pull your tendons back and forth. Your tendons move through a tunnel called a tendon sheath. Trigger finger happens when the tendon and sheath at the bottom of the finger and thumb get thicker or swell and the tendon can no longer move freely. The area of your palm where this swelling can happen is called the A1 pulley region.

You may have trigger finger in only 1 finger or thumb, or it can happen in many fingers and both thumbs.

 

Example of trigger finger affecting the thumb.
©2018 Healthwise; adapted by Alberta Health Services (2025).

The exact cause of trigger finger is not known, but trigger finger is more common in:

• people with diabetes, arthritis, and other chronic conditions
• people who often do repetitive motions with their hands, like gardening, working with tools, or playing an instrument or racket sport

Trigger finger is also more common in females and in people in their 50s and 60s.

Whole-person health

The whole-person health approach will help you and your healthcare team better manage your health condition.

It means thinking about all parts of your health and wellness:

• physical
• financial and social
• spiritual
• emotional

These parts are all connected and impact each other. It’s important to be aware of your personal needs in each part and to share that information with your healthcare team. Your healthcare team needs to understand who you are and what matters to you.

Support and resources

• If you need a family doctor, visit Alberta Health Services: Find a doctor.
• If you need a translator, let your healthcare provider know.
• If you need health advice any time, day or night, call Health Link at 811.
• If you need to find programs and services in your community, call or text 211 or visit 211 Alberta.

For more information about trigger finger, see: Trigger Finger: Care Instructions.