Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Sep 18, 2016; 7(9): 570-576
Published online Sep 18, 2016. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v7.i9.570
Epidemiology of isolated hand injuries in the United Arab Emirates
Michal Grivna, Hani O Eid, Fikri M Abu-Zidan
Michal Grivna, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Hani O Eid, Fikri M Abu-Zidan, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Fikri M Abu-Zidan, Department of Surgery, Al Ain Hospital, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Author contributions: Grivna M, Eid HO and Abu-Zidan FM conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, critically read the paper and approved final version; Grivna M and Abu-Zidan FM wrote the paper; Eid HO performed the experiments.
Supported by An Interdisciplinary UAE University grant, No. 02-07-8-1/4.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Al Ain Health District (UAE RECA/02/44).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided written consent prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There is no additional data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fikri M Abu-Zidan, MD, FACS, FRCS, PhD, DipApplStats, Professor, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, UAE University, PO Box 17666, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. fabuzidan@uaeu.ac.ae
Telephone: +971-3-7137579 Fax: +971-3-7672067
Received: March 6, 2016
Peer-review started: March 7, 2016
First decision: May 16, 2016
Revised: May 29, 2016
Accepted: June 27, 2016
Article in press: June 29, 2016
Published online: September 18, 2016
Abstract
AIM

To provide suggestions for hand injury prevention by study the demography and risk factors of casualties suffering from isolated hand injuries.

METHODS

All trauma patients with isolated hand injuries who were admitted to Al Ain Hospital for more than 24 h during a period of 3 years were studied. Patient demographics, location, mechanism/time of injury, and length of hospital stay were all analyzed.

RESULTS

Two hundred and ten patients were studied. Their mean age was 29.7 years. Males constituted 92%. Sixty-five point one percent of all cases were from the Indian subcontinent. The workplace was the most common location of injury (67.1%), followed by the home (17.1%) and road (6.2%). Machinery caused 36.2% of all injuries, followed by heavy object (20.5%) and fall (11%). Cases injured at home were young (P < 0.0001) with an associated higher incidence of females (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Male workers in Al Ain city are at greater risk of sustaining hand injuries, predominantly from machinery. Safety education, personal protection, and the enforcement of safety standards are essential to the prevention and avoidance of hand injury.

Keywords: United Arab Emirates, Occupational safety, Hand injury, Injury prevention

Core tip: Two hundred and ten hospitalized patients with isolated hand injuries were prospectively studied in Al Ain Hospital, United Arab Emirates. Males were in greater danger of sustaining work-related hand injuries especially from machinery. Safety education, personal protection, and enforcement of safety standards are essential for hand injury prevention.