Epidemiological study of hand injury in a tertiary care centre in Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: The epidemiology and pattern of hand injury may vary from one region to the other. Due to the lack of systematic documentation, not much is known regarding the epidemiology of hand injury in Nepal. The purpose of this study was to determine the patterns of hand injury in a tertiary care centre in a developing country like Nepal.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in the Department of Plastic Surgery and Burns, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Kathmandu, Nepal. The study included 174 patients presenting with hand injury in the emergency room and the outpatient department.

Results: There were 129 (74.1%) males and 45 (25.9%) female patients, the mean age of all patients being 30.3 years. The top four occupations concerned with hand injuries were carpenters, students, manual labourers and factory workers. Most injuries occurred in furniture and wood workshops. Electrically powered saw belt and grinding machinery were the culprits for majority of crush/avulsion injuries whereas broken glass was the commonest cause of sharp cut injury. Tendon injury was the most common diagnosis followed by fractures and fingertip injuries. Accordingly, tendon repair followed by fixation of fractures were the commonly carried out treatment procedures.

Conclusion: Hand injuries are very common among young male furniture and wood factory workers as well as manual labourers having occupational exposure to different machines. Formulating safety protocols in the furniture and industrial settings and other machinery related workplaces would play a significant role in reducing the incidence of hand injuries.