Fingerology

Book excerpt: What are the names of the fingers? The fingers should be named: thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger. But this answer is not always correct, complete, or adequate; at times, there is confusion and aberrations... Retrospectively, in 1969, in the second issue of the new British Journal of Hand Surgery, Dr. H. Graham Stack wrote a classic article, "Naming the Fingers," elaborating on these confusions, ambiguities, and misconceptions. With the permission of Sage Publications, we have reproduced the article- and it is just as relevant today as it was four decades ago. The lessons that were illustrated and preached have still been relatively ignored. Indeed, it may be more relevant as the problem of "Naming the Fingers" has not been resolved or eliminated- and there have been over 200 reports of wrong site surgery on the hand in 2007 in the US. - including 123 on the fingers. Fingerology has evolved into a reference book, a compendium of and about the fingers.