De Quervain's tenosynovitis

Painful thickening of the first extensor compartment at the wrist, so that the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis tendons no longer glide freely. It causes pain over the thumb side of the wrist on gripping and pinching, is commoner in women, after 40 and around pregnancy, and is treated with a splint, a steroid injection or, if these fail, surgical release.

Related terms

• Anatomy

  First extensor compartment

  The fibro-osseous tunnel over the radial styloid through which the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis tendons pass under the extensor retinaculum. A septum divides it fully or partly in many wrists, more often in people with De Quervain's tenosynovitis, and the abductor pollicis longus often has several slips — both relevant to injection and to surgical release.

• Condition

  Stenosing tenosynovitis

  The medical name for trigger finger: narrowing of the flexor tendon tunnel at the A1 pulley so that the tendon catches. Despite the name, histology shows little inflammation; the pulley undergoes fibrocartilaginous change. The same term is used for De Quervain's tenosynovitis at the wrist.

• Investigation

  Finkelstein test

  A test for De Quervain's tenosynovitis: the examiner grasps the patient's thumb and gently deviates the wrist towards the little finger, reproducing pain over the first extensor compartment. The commonly taught version with the thumb tucked into a fist is Eichhoff's test, which is more painful and gives more false positives in healthy wrists.

• Investigation

  WHAT test

  Wrist hyperflexion and abduction of the thumb test for De Quervain tenosynovitis: with the wrist hyperflexed the patient abducts the thumb against resistance, reproducing first-compartment pain. Against ultrasound it was 0.99 sensitive but only 0.29 specific, so a negative test is more useful than a positive one; its authors also use it to detect dynamic instability of the first-compartment tendons after release.

Articles mentioning this term

1. Patient information · 2 October 2026

   De Quervain's tenosynovitis

   Pain on the thumb side of the wrist: how De Quervain's tenosynovitis is diagnosed, what splints and steroid injections do, and what surgery involves.

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