Rehabilitation of flexor tendon injuries of the hand

Flexor tendon injuries of the hand are common. Despite advances in the treatment and rehabilitation of flexor tendon injuries, regaining satisfactory digital function after repair is still a problem. Thus, there have been enormous amount of research designed to improve our understanding and knowledge on tendon structure, anatomy, biomechanics, their response to the injury and repair, and the effect of postrepair stress on tendon healing and strength. The results of these studies emphasized that the problem is not so much how to achieve tendon repair and healing as how to decrease or eliminate the tendency for adhesion formation with the limitation of tendon gliding. On the basis of results of these clinical and experimental investigations, this article reviews basic anatomy, nutrition and healing mechanism of flexor tendons and briefly summarizes common trends in postoperative rehabilitation and functional evaluation of flexor tendon injuries.