Various types of high-pressure equipment, including airless paint sprayers, hydraulic apparatus and grease guns, are used in industry, in farming and in the home. Injection injuries from this equipment usually involve the hand and may initially appear benign. However, these injuries must be treated quickly and aggressively to prevent significant long-term disability.

Despite their appearance for over 20 years, high-pressure injection injuries to the hand are often grossly undertreated or mistreated, resulting in usually avoidable permanent impairment--often with amputation. Primary care physicians, and especially emergency room physicians, must be aware of the serious nature of this usually innocuous-appearing injury and immediately refer such patients for ...

With what types of hand injuries can vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) be used? Large wounds with an insufficient bed for skin grafting are most helped with VAC therapy. The negative-pressure environment of VAC helps decrease swelling, remove exudate, promote granulation tissue, and shrink the size of the wound. If a skin graft is applied to a hand wound, VAC application can promote adherence of th...

Introduction Sugarcane juice is popular drink in Malaysia and South Asia bearing in mind the refreshing taste in the scorching heat and humidity. During the fasting month, family-run businesses will open stalls in designated areas (“Bazaar Ramadhan”) to serve the local population that flocks there. Children sometimes are allowed to handle these machines without their parents realising the hidde...

Until recently, extensor tendon injuries were often discounted as an important hand problem. However, studies have shown that not all extensor lacerations fare well and that loss of flexion can be problematic. Newer postoperative protocols emphasizing tendon gliding have improved results, and better repair techniques and postoperative rehabilitation regimens are under investigation. This articl...

The immediate and long-term outcome of a mutilating hand injury can be positively influenced by health care professionals adopting a biopsychosocial perspective toward treatment and management. Such an injury produces a psychological and social impact that should be openly and candidly addressed with the injured individual and with the family. The earlier and the more skillfully these issues ar...

Fifty eight coal miners attended the Royal Gwent Accident and Emergency Department with serious hand injuries over a three year period. The commonest cause of the injuries was falling rock or coal from the pit roof crushing the hand and the commonest type of injury was the crushed, compound fracture of the terminal phalangeal area of the digit, with or without pulp loss. Records of the time off...

The treatment of extensor tendon injuries of the hand is based on Verdan's division of the different sections into eight zones. Taking the anatomic characteristics of those zones into consideration, good functional results can be achieved in most cases by differentiating between indications for operative or conservative treatment. The most frequent extensor tendon injury of the hand is the clos...

During the initial six week period of deployment and jungle training in Belize, a 634 man strong infantry battalion group sustained twenty-three machete hand injuries. Eighteen were treated at battalion level, while five required hospital treatment. The management of these injuries is considered.