Prospective study of patients with hand injury: Tikur Anbessa University Teaching Hospital, Addis Ababa.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the nature of hand injuries among patients seen in a referral teaching hospital in Addis Ababa.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All six hundred and two patients with a total of 621 injured hands seen at the emergency out patient department of Tikur Anbessa University Hospital over a one- year period, May 1, 2003 - April 30, 2004 were evaluated and findings documented and analyzed.

RESULTS

of the 602 patients, 511 (84.9%) were males and 91 (15.1%) females. The mean age was 28.3 years (males 28.8 years and females 25.4 years). The majority of the injuries 488 (81.1%) occurred either in a factory, on a street, at home or at a construction site. The commonest causes included machine accidents 195 (32.4%), followed by crushing 95 (15.8%), road traffic accidents 83 (13.8%) and injury from a sharp object 80 (13.4%). Fifty six percent of all the patients (336/602) had been injured at work, of whom 156 of 195 (80.0%) had been working with an unguarded machine. Fifteen of those injured 195 (7.7%) had suffered a previous machine injury. Work related hand injuries occurred more often among manual workers 77.7% (261/336). Three hundred and seven of the 621 injured hands had one or more fractures (49.4%), 233 a severe soft tissue injury (37.5%), 126 an amputation (20.3%), 40 a dislocation (6.4%), and 34 (5.5%) foreign bodies in the hands. Four hundred and sixty five (77.2%) arrived within eight hours of the injury, and this included the majority of those most severely injured.

CONCLUSION

It is suggested that the provision of adequate safety guards on industrial machines, and their use, would significantly reduce the number of severe hand injuries occurring in Addis Ababa.