The treatment of De Quervain's Tenosynovitis

The first line of treatment should be the modification of activities that cause pain and/or splinting.

Anti-inflammatories can be of benefit to help reduce swelling and relieve pain. If the problem fails to resolve within several weeks, then a corticosteroid injection is usually recommended.

The majority of patients that receive a corticosteroid injection for De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis have complete, or near complete, resolution of their symptoms within two months.

Unfortunately, up to 1/3 of patients can have recurrence of their symptoms, despite improvement following a cortisone injection.

Failure to obtain permanent resolution of symptoms with corticosteroids would usually lead to more corticosteroid injections.

Surgical treatment involves opening of the tendon tunnel to the thumb and is usually done with a local anaesthetic, in an ambulatory care setting.

Although surgery is usually successful in permanent resolution of symptoms, the recovery from surgery is slower than the recovery from the cortisone injection.