Mallet finger

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In medicine, mallet finger, also baseball finger, dropped finger and (more generally) extensor tendon injury, is an injury of the extensor digitorum tendon of the fingers at the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint.^[1] It results from hyperextension of the extensor digitorum tendon, and usually occurs when a ball (such as a baseball, basketball, or volleyball), while being caught, hits an outstretched finger and jams it.

It is also hereditary, as some people with mallet fingers often have at least one parent or grandparent with the same type of fingers. It does not always result from an injury.

In order to straighten the mallet finger it must be placed in a splint continously for six weeks. This allows the ligament to reattach, if the finger is bent during these six weeks the healing process must start all over again.