Abstract

Introduction: Hand injuries are a common condition that causes serious loss of labor and skill function. İn Turkey, studies on the epidemiology and causes of hand injuries is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the etiology, demographic characteristics, clinical findings and outcomes of patients who applied to emergency department with open hand injury and to obtain data that can be used as a preliminary model for future protective programs. Material and Method: Between January 2010- December 2013, records of 1180 of patients who applied to emergency department for an isolated open hand injury were retrospectively reviewed. The records were examined for age, sex, date of application, occupation, cause of injury, localization or type of injury, medical treatments and outcome. Results: 889 (75.3%) of the patients were male. The average age of the patients included in the study was 32.47 ± 18.51. When the days of injury were examined, injury was generally seen on Friday with 185 patients (15.7%). The main cause of the injuries were 699 (59.2%) home accidents. 103 cases (8.7%) were working in wooden work. The most commonly encountered injury was cuts on skin (50.5%), as observed in 596 cases. 488 (41.4%) of the cases were primary sutured and 788 (66.8%) of the cases were discharged. Conclusion: Patients who are admitted to emergency department due to hand injuries, most of them are young male patients. It is possible to reduce labor and economic losses with early treatment of hand injuries and appropriate rehabilitation. We think that the training of employees in occupational health and the promotion of the use of protective clothes and the strict control mechanism to be created are the main measures.

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