Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by TSAI, N.
Right arrow Articles by KIRKHAM, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by TSAI, N.
Right arrow Articles by KIRKHAM, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Articles

Fingertip Skin Wrinkling – the Effect of Varying Tonicity

N. TSAI
S. KIRKHAM

Department of Orthopaedics, From the Westmead Hospital, Sydney New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence: Dr Nicholas Tsai, 20 Greenway Drive Pymble, Sydney NSW, 2073, Australia. Tel.: +61 02 998 30431; fax: +61 02 998 30025. E-mail: ntsai{at}hotmail.com

Fingertip skin wrinkling after prolonged immersion in water is a well-recognized phenomenon, whereas a denervated digit does not exhibit normal skin wrinkling while a finger with a regenerated or repaired nerve shows at least partial reappearance of wrinkling. This is the basis for the bedside immersion-wrinkling test of autonomic digital nerve function. The exact mechanism of fingertip skin wrinkling is still subject to controversy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the tonicity of a solution and the time elapsed to skin wrinkling. Fourteen healthy volunteers (28 hands) were recruited for investigation. We submerged all 28 hands in solutions of varying tonicity while maintaining all other parameters constant. We found that increased tonicity significantly slowed the time to wrinkling (TTW). Hypotonic solutions such as water should be used when performing clinical bedside testing for autonomic digital nerve function.

Key Words: wrinkle finger nerve

Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume), Vol. 30, No. 3, 273-275 (2005)
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHSB.2004.12.010
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?