Outcomes of percutaneous ultrasound-guided A1 pulley fenestration release with small-gauge needles for treatment of trigger finger
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To retrospectively evaluate outcomes of an ultrasound-guided A1 pulley fenestration release technique using small-gauge (hypodermic or spinal) needles for the treatment of trigger finger (TF). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review of all TF fenestration release procedures performed by two musculoskeletal radiologists between July 2020 and August 2024 was conducted. The technique included a steroid injection after release. Preprocedural and postprocedural functional Quinnell grades and any immediate complications from the procedure report were primary outcome measures. Clinical pain score, functional outcomes, other TF interventions, and delayed complications were secondary outcome measures. RESULTS: A total of 119 procedures were performed in 92 patients (61% women, mean age 63 ± 13 years), with 95 procedures (80%) following prior TF injection with refractory symptoms. Periprocedural Quinnell grades were reported in 99 procedures (83%), with immediately improved scores for all (median-preprocedural-to-postprocedural, 3-to-0; p < 0.001). Retrospective follow-up data were available for 60 procedures (50%), of which 70% experienced functional improvement. Pain scores were significantly improved at follow-up (median-preprocedural-to-follow-up, 4-to-0.5; p = 0.046). Subsequent interventions occurred following 22 cases (18%), of which 15 (13%) required additional steroid injections, 3 (3%) required repeat fenestration, and 5 (4%) required surgical release. No immediate or delayed complications were otherwise reported. Higher Quinnell grade at end of procedure predicted increased rates of follow-up (OR = 3.17, p = 0.012) and suggested worse functional status at follow-up (OR = 0.25, p = 0.054), and smaller peri-procedural improvement increased odds of additional intervention (OR = 0.48, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided fenestration is an effective and safe treatment for TF in the outpatient setting.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".