Torn radial collateral ligament, index finger

I am contemplating having surgery on my index finger after tearing the radial collateral ligament.  The ligament tore off from the MCP joint (the knuckle where the finger bones meet the hand bones).  I injured it three months ago, and I still have quite a bit of pain and very little pinch strength for everyday tasks.  I have not climbed since hurting my finger.  

Has anyone in the MP universe had this injury and elected to have surgery?  The hand surgeon (a non-climber) was agnostic in regard to whether I should have the surgery.  Any advice from climbers who have had this injury would be much appreciated.  Thank you.  

Not the same...but similar. I fully ruptured my UCL from my thumb on the same joint in Oct. 2019.  Got the surgery 7 days later and have 70% of my strength back today. I couldn't imagine not getting the surgery as I couldn't even pinch and hold a piece of paper. It has changed my climbing ability for life likely but I get to climb at least.   Get the surgery, do the PT and best wishes. 

Thanks for telling me about your experience, Benny.

Hey Nick, could you describe your symptoms?  I have a sore index knuckle where my finger meets my hand (metacarpophalangeal).  And the knuckle feels kind of unstable when I hang something heavy off my left hand.  What ended up happening?

Elyse, I'm just seeing your post now.  I had the surgery a month ago.  A torn radial collateral ligament means that you have no pinch strength because the index finger ligament attached to the MP joint ("the first knuckle") is no longer attached.  The hand surgeon knew exactly what was wrong in ten seconds.  He took my index finger and moved it down and across my hand and it just kept on going.  Currently, I have only just started PT this week.. The finger has very little flexibility at this point and the MP joint is very sore.  We'll see what happens from here, but I don't think that I'll be able to climb (or at least pull medium hard) with this hand for at least a year.  Good luck.  I hope your hand feels better since you wrote.

Are you happy with your choice to get the surgery?  I am about to get an MRI, but fairly sure its the UCL of my index MCP.  The knuckle is unstable, but I would still be psyched to not deal with surgery.  

I'm hoping that it's too early for me to tell what the final results of having the surgery on my finger will be, but, so far, I am not optimistic.  Not at all.  I got the surgery on March 10th, and today is May 25th.  My MCP joint on my index finger is swollen and sore.  It aches when I move my hand.  For some weird reason, my PIP and DIP joints are also a bit sore, but not as bad.  I do have full flexibility in the hand, but only after I work the hand with repeated opening-and-closing for a few minutes.  Most concerning is the strength of my hand which is really pathetic.  I'm doing daily strengthening exercises now with squeeze foam and putty, but I am registering only about 1/6th of the strength of my "good hand's" hand-grip strength and index finger pinch strength.  As I said, really pathetic.

One thing that you should know is that I'm 65 years old, and my hand will not recover as fast as a younger person's would.  According to my surgeon, I also have the beginnings of arthritis, which I knew nothing about before and had never felt. Maybe the trauma of surgery accelerated the arthritis, but I'm just speculating based on no knowledge.  I'm a 5.11 climber, but my sense is that those days are long gone.  But who knows—maybe the pain, swelling, stiffness, soreness, and weakness will dissipate over time.  We'll see.  Am I happy that I decided to get the surgery?  So far, no, but time will tell. Ask me again in a year.

Here's a much-needed update on the doom & gloom of my last post regarding my torn radial collateral ligament (MCP joint).  Currently, my finger is fine and doing great.  More than two years after the surgery, the only after-effect is a slightly larger knuckle and a very occasional minor bit of stiffness or soreness.  

I started climbing again six months after the surgery, and was pulling hard again just a couple of weeks after that.  So . . . I definitely and absolutely recommend this kind of surgery.

Hey!! I also got my collateral ligament repaired a couple years ago!  It was the ulnar ligament, much less common than the radial side, and almost unheard of compared to the thumb. All the research I did lead me to believe it’s a punching motion that does it. More common in boxers. I remember taking a fall from a moonboard and kind of punching the crash pad as I landed. I went to dr viola at the Steadman in the summer of 2021. It was a painful surgery and recovery, but everything has healed up well. I’m climbing just as strong now. Some loss of flexibility in the index finger, but not enough to affect me. My finger would “just keep going” but towards the ring finger. Which isn’t a necessary motion, but the surgeon recommended as a climber, that I should get the surgery. He said I could try to heal it up, but if I blew it again, there wouldn’t be enough material left for a surgical repair. So I might as well just do it. I felt dumb explaining to people that I was getting finger surgery. Everyone told me how their pulley injuries always healed without surgery and that I was being a princess. I’m still not sure if I could have lived without the surgery or not, but my hand works good now! So I think I’m happy! 

I'm happy to hear that the surgery worked out for you too.  Two success stories right there!