Hand injuries in children and adolescents

Abstract

Introduction/Objective. The objective of the study was to determinate which groups in the population of children are most prone to hand injuries and to identify the causes of the injuries with the aim of further developing better means of severe injuries prevention that can lead to invalidity. Methods. A retrospective epidemiological study was carried out, and included all children with hand injuries admitted to our hospital between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2017; The data were collected and analyzed statistically using SPSSR. Significance was defined as p < 0.05. Results. The total number of patients was 254, 202 boys and 52 girls, with a mean age for both sexes 10.13 years (range1–17). The majority of patients were from an urban population 56.7% and 43.3% were from a rural area. Regarding the month in the year when the injury occurred, there were two peaks, in January and in May. The right hand was more affected, 53.2%, than the left, 45.6%, and both hands were affected in 1.8% of cases. Isolated soft tissue injuries (skin, muscles, tendons) were present in 59% of cases, isolated bone injuries (phalangeal and metacarpal bone fractures) in 15.3%, and both soft tissue and bone injuries in 25.7% of cases. The little finger was the most affected, followed by the long finger and thumb, index and ring finger, respectively. The most serious injuries were from explosive wounds caused by firecrackers and handling agricultural tools and engines. Conclusion. Hand injuries in childhood are common and can have devastating consequences. Developing prevention program by raising awareness about this issue is of vital importance.

Keywords

• hand injuries
• children
• adolescents
• prevention