Talk:Extensor digitorum muscle

Question about hand injuries
Given how common hand injuries are - and that there are two tendons attached to the index finger and the little finger, is there any way for a lay person (or even a medic) to find out which of the tendons (extensor indicis proprius, furthest from the surface of the flesh, and extensor digitorum communis, closest to the surface of the flesh) has been cut after a hand injury to the outside of the hand?

(I gather that, if only one of the tendons has been cut, it is sometimes not possible to discern if either of the tendons has been damaged at all after the associated wound has healed).

Ulstrasound can be used to figure out which tendon has been cut, but I strongly feel that there should be some low tech "mechancial" way (using a pencil probe) of determining (with likelihood) if either tendon has been cut (the idea being that a cut tendon exhibits lower tension than the tendon on the opposite arm and that this could be judged with a pencil probe.

Is there ANY low tech way of determing which tendon has been cut?

LouiseBatchelor9122 (talk) 23:51, 28 May 2008 (UTC)