Medical Education

Why new parents, gamers, and fly fishermen all develop the same condition — the anatomy behind Mommy Thumb, Gamer's Thumb, and Fly Fisher's Wrist. Why cortisone works here when it doesn't for tennis elbow, and the treatment hierarchy that actually resolves it.

CMC arthritis vs. De Quervain's tenosynovitis — two conditions that hurt in the same neighborhood but require completely different treatment. The Finkelstein test and CMC grind test that tell you which one you're dealing with.

Phalen's test — the classic prayer-hands maneuver — has a false negative rate of roughly 25%. Durkan's compression test cuts that number significantly. Here's the technique, what a positive test means, and why this is the test I rely on in the clinic.

"If you can move it, it's not broken" is wrong. Movement tells you whether the tendons are working — not whether the bone is intact. Here's what actually tells the difference, and the mallet finger window you cannot afford to miss.

Tennis elbow has forty different treatments because none of them truly works — except one. Eccentric loading of the wrist extensors has genuine evidence behind it. Here's the protocol, why it works, and why your instincts about rest are wrong.

We call it a FOOSH — Fall on an Outstretched Hand. Pain level immediately after impact is a terrible predictor of fracture. Here's what actually tells you which category you're in — and the anatomical snuffbox test every outdoorsperson should know.

Why cortisone produces excellent short-term relief for tennis elbow and significantly worse one-year outcomes — and the conditions where injection is genuinely the right call. The inject vs. load distinction every patient deserves to understand.

The four-stage progression of ulnar nerve compression at the elbow — and when the window for conservative treatment starts closing. Includes the Finkelstein test and a stage-by-stage breakdown of what symptoms mean at each point.