Abstract
Introduction A prospective study of consecutive hand injuries treated at a British Field Hospital revealed a distinctive pattern of injury. This is a unique review of hand injuries in a recent military deployment.
Method Patients presenting to the field hospital with hand injuries over a two-month period were entered into a database.
The parameters studied included mechanism of injury, timing and nature of treatment and ultimate disposal. An anatomical comparison of pattern of injury with six months retrospective data and a literature search was performed.
Results Of nine hundred and thirty one patients attending the hospital in this period, fifty-three had injuries to the hand.
Only seven cases resulted from battle injuries. Of the remainder, thirty-three were work related and the 13 were due to sport.
Twenty-eight of the patients required a surgical procedure; the mean time to surgery was 1.7 hours.
Twelve patients were subsequently aero medically evacuated.
Conclusion Wounds of conflict account for a small proportion of hand injuries seen in the operational environment. The injury pattern seen reflects Daily Non-Battle Injury (DNBI) – the hazards encountered by deployed troops on a daily basis
Correspondence should be addressed to Major S A Adams, Orthopaedic Department, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 51 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4SA.
