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.

Related terms

• Condition

  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.

• 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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