What are Flexor Tendon Sheath Infections?
Tendons in the hand connect with muscles of the forearm, enabling you to bend and extend your fingers and lift your hand at the wrist. The flexor tendons are smooth, thick flexible strings, running through six lubricated tunnels or compartments known as flexor tendon sheaths. The tendons work like bicycle brake cables to bend your fingers, sliding smoothly within the fingers as they straighten and bend. Because this is a very precise mechanism, dependant upon the muscles of the forearm and many coordinated parts, injuries to a tendon or its sheath can cause major problems in the hand. The flexor tendons of the fingers and thumb are covered with a double layer of synovium, the lubricating fluid that allows them to slide freely within the tendon sheath. A flexor tendon sheath infection occurs in the space between these two layers. This condition is also known as infectious (or septic) tenosynovitis. Left untreated, flexor tendon sheath infections can lead to the loss of skin or even the
