Epidemiology and Treatment Outcome of Blast Injuries to the Hand at a Tertiary Hospital of Kashmir Valley, India

Abstract

Background Blast injuries to hand can have disastrous consequences on account of loss of critical hand functions. This study was conducted to study the epidemiology and outcome of hand blast injuries reporting to emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods All the blast injuries to hand admitted at our center between 2016 and 2020 were assessed at the time of injury and at 6 weeks after completion of primary management. The severity of injury and functional outcome was assessed using modified hand injury severity score (HISS) and quick disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (QuickDASH) scale, respectively. Descriptive statistics was calculated and correlation between HISS and DASH was assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results A total of 26 cases with a mean age of 23.12 ± 9.1 years were included. The subjects included 25 males and 22 subjects had injury to their dominant hand. The grade of injury was severe in 12 (46.15%) cases followed by moderate in 5 (19.2%) cases and major in 5 (19.2%) cases. The mean HISS score at injury was 67.46 ± 37.6. The mean QuickDASH score at follow-up was 37.24 ± 29.7. QuickDASH score at follow-up had a significant correlation with HISS score at baseline with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of (r = 0.67, p = 0.0012) Conclusions Blast injuries to hands are primarily seen in young males with low-grade explosives being the primary source of injury. Dominant hand is most commonly involved with many cases needing revascularization procedures. Higher severity of blast injuries to hand is associated with poor outcome at follow-up.