Occupational Hand Injuries Presenting at Accident and Emergency Department / Mayo Hospital Lahore. A Review of Six Months

Background: Hand injuries constitute a significant number of trauma patients all over the world. Advanced countries have well equipped hand surgery units with well trained hand surgeons and paramedical staff. Hand injuries are more frequent in under developed countries with very little specialist care. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to collect data to have knowledge about hand injuries in the largest hospital of Pakistan (Mayo Hospital Lahore), to know the prevalence, handedness, mode and types of hand injuries and their socioeconomic impact. Methods: Over a period of six months 324 patients of acute hand injuries were analyzed and data were entered on a prescribed proforma and analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. Results: There were 324 patients out of these, 309 were males and 15 were females. The mean age of all patients was 26.84 years ranging from 12-62 years. Considering the fractures there were 111 thumb, 122 index, 45 middle, 2 ring and 40 little finger involvements. It was also seen that there were 37 amputations out of these 4 amputations were at or just distal to wrist level. Hand soft tissues included 162 skin injuries, 41 tendon injuries and 16 neurovascular injuries. Finally, according to procedures performed, there were 139 backslab applications, 148 wire fixations. According to type of anesthesia used, there were 175 local, 2 regional, 6 general anesthesias and in 141 no anesthesia was used.