J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2001 Dec;12(4):503-510.

Emergency Department Clinical Evaluation of Child Hand Injuries

• Kim JW
• Cho JP

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Child hand injuries have increased in industrial society. Considering the complications following even the best of treatments, injury prevention is very important. The objective of this study is to shed light on the prevalence, epidemiology, injury site, and etiology of child hand injuries. METHOD: The subjects was 245 children under the age of 15, who visited the emergency department at Ajou university hospital from January 1998 to December 1999. This study was performed retrospectively by reviewing the charts and analyzing the sex and age distributions, the monthyl and daily distributions, the causes of injury, the types of injury, and the sites of injury.
RESULTS
The male to female ratio was 1.35:1, and the largest age group was from 1 to 3 years old. The number of injuries was the highest on Sundays and in November. About 53% of the patients visited the emergency room between 8 pm and midnight. Doors were the most common causes and crushing was the most common type of child hand injuries. The most common injury site was the fingertip, followed by the DIP joint and the PIP joint. These hand injuries were treated by emergency physicians(52.2%), plastic surgeons(25.7%), and orthopedic surgeons(20.4 %).
CONCLUSION
Child hand injuries were most frequent in 1 to 3 year olds. A large number of these injuries occurred because of children getting their fingertips caught in door. If these are to be prevented injuries, are to be prevented. Education and advertisement on the use safety equipment on doors in order to protect children must be reinforced.

Keyword

Hand injury

MeSH Terms

Age Distribution
Child*
Child, Preschool
Education
Emergencies*
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Epidemiology
Female
Hand Injuries*
Hand*
Humans
Joints
Male
Orthopedics
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies