My local hand doctor measured my contracted little finger relaxed. That did not matter since it was contracted the same degree relaxed or straightened. I got NA from Dr. Eaton. I have arthritis and DD in both hands. When I relax my hands all my fingers draw down to about 20%. When I straighten them they are all at about 0%. Why would a hand doctor measure a contracted finger relaxed? That could be very misleading.

Contracted fingers must be measured at their *fullest* extension.

You can get a good idea of PIP contraction (second from palm) as follows: Draw a large perfect square on a piece of paper. If looking at the right hand, use the right vertical side as the vertical axis and extend this line down below the bottom of the box. Then draw a line from the upper left of the square to the lower right. This line represents a full 45 degrees of contraction from its intersection with the vertical line on the right.

Looking straight down on the page, place your PIP joint directly over the lower left corner of the box. Looking down, make a dot representing the angle your finger is contracted away from the perfectly straight vertical line. Now draw in the line. If your line is half way from straight vertical line to the forty five degree angel line, you are at 22.5 degrees of contraction.

You can remesure any time to check progression of a contraction. I had a good idea where 30 degrees was, and that is where I personally pulled the NA trigger. If you decide to go the NA route, *don’t* go past 30D. The PIP has *memory* and will fight you, not wanting to go all the way back to 100 % straight. The night splint is there to convince it otherwise. OS is usually postponed until you get all the way to 45 degrees. Any good CHS will tell you that scaring usually pulls the PIP down to 10-15 degrees after recovery. Exceptions do exist.

If you have only a MCP (first joint), my congratulations. Compared to PIP, should be a cake walk.