Drumstick fingers
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| R68.3 | Drumstick fingers, watch glass nails |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
Finger clubbing (also called "piston finger", Latin Digiti hippocratici or osteoarthropathy hypertrophique pneumique , English clubbed fingers ) is the medical term for the clearly visible swelling of finger and Zehenendgliedern as a symptom of certain diseases, particularly heart or lung diseases. Drumstick fingers are often observed together with the so-called watch glass nails .
Drumstick fingers are caused by local (in this case often only occurring on one side) or systemic tissue hypoxia (lack of oxygen), with the resulting formation of new capillaries . They are particularly observed in the following diseases:
- Heart defect with right-left shunt
- Chronic lung diseases (including malignant lung diseases such as bronchial carcinoma)
- Fallot tetralogy
- Eisenmenger reaction
- Cystic fibrosis
- Pulmonary fibrosis
These diseases are characterized by chronic hypoxia . If the hypoxia recedes as part of the treatment (e.g. surgery ), the drumstick fingers and the watch glass nails usually also regress.
In rare cases, drumstick fingers can also be inherited, but then they are "atypical" drumstick fingers, as they are then not a symptom of an illness as defined above.
