A family friend has just had a ligament to her finger snap. Emergency has put it in a splint as the finger was curling up on itself in her palm and she could not straighten it. She has to go back to see a specialist.

There is talk she may need an op to rejoin it, but they are waiting for scans/Xrays (not sure which) to come back.

Any idea how long it takes to repair? She is fine otherwise, just annoyed it happened, she was doing some gardening and it just failed while she was working.

I think the ligament damage is less bad but If the tendon is also gone it will require an op to rejoin. During the re-hab it is important to do the exercises but not overdo them even if you feel ok, it is fairly critical for a few weeks as the strength improves but the join isn’t too strong. 2 months for the pysio to say I was ok, another 2 for me to feel confident to ride, dig lift heavy stuff etc.

I know this because I cut the tendon that led to my 1st finger when a hand saw slipped. Ouch.

It does sound as if it has snapped completely and not just torn . So will require surgery at some point . They do tend to get on tendons reasonably quickly as they contract and are harder to work with.
They will either sew the ends together with a suture or put in a tiny metal pin with a suture attatched and sew the tendon to that .

There is such a thing as an alvusion fracture where the bone comes away with the tendon intact ( ultrasound or x-ray will spot this ) ,this is then pinned back together.

1 day in hospital , maybe 10days in a cast or splinted . Back to hospital for wound check and clean up , then maybe 4 – 6 weeks immobilised .

Then comes the physio, 1 or 2 months to get back to a good level of use .

snapped a thumb tendon twice so becoming abit of an expert, and my Mum did the same as your friend making a bed and left it and its permantly crooked