Drumstick fingers (synonyms: Digiti hippocratici; bell club fingers; club fingers; piston fingers; osteoarthropathy hypertrophique pneumique, spatulate fingers; ICD-10 R68.3: drumstick fingers) refer to rounded distension of the finger end phalanges (endphalanges; fingertips) with soft tissue thickening. These often occur together with clock glass nails.
Drumstick fingers usually develop secondarily on the basis of diseases with chronic hypoxemia (heart and lung diseases). Furthermore, they may also occur in gastroenterological diseases (affecting the gastrointestinal tract) such as Crohn’s disease (enteritis regionalis; chronic inflammatory bowel disease (CED)) and ulcerative colitis (chronic inflammatory disease of the mucosa of the colon (large intestine) or rectum (rectum)) or occur idiopathically (without an identifiable cause).
Drumstick fingers can be a symptom of many diseases (see under “Differential diagnoses”).
Course and prognosis: The course and prognosis depend on the cause of the disease. In any case, the cause of drumstick fingers must be clarified medically.
