Mallet finger
an extensor tendon injury at the farthest away finger joint
A mallet finger, also known as hammer finger or PLF finger or Hannan finger, is an extensor tendon injury at the furthest away finger joint. This results in the inability to straighten the finger tip without pushing it. There is generally pain and bruising at the back of the furthest away finger joint.
A mallet finger usually results from overbending of the finger tip. This typically occurs when a ball hits an outstretched finger and jams it. This results in either a tear of the tendon or the tendon pulling off a bit of bone. The diagnosis is generally based on symptoms and supported by X-rays.
Treatment is normally with a splint that holds the fingertip straight continuously for 8 weeks. The middle joint is allowed to move. This should commence within a week of the injury.
“Mallet finger” enters the record as an extensor tendon injury at the farthest away finger joint. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mallet, finger and extensor can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q653383. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mallet finger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.