What is Hand Trauma?
Ranging from simple fingertip injuries to full-blown tendon tears and bone fractures, hand trauma is referred to any injury to the hand and can be divided into six general categories:
- Burns - Cuts (Lacerations)
- Fractures and dislocations
- High pressure injuries (from grease and paint guns)
- Infections
- Soft tissue (flesh) injuries and amputations
Depending on the type of injury and how it occured, the depth, severity as well as location, the symptoms of Hand Trauma may vary and include:
- Burns — Tenderness or complete numbness, deformity, discolouration, loss of tissue, change in texture of skin, redness, blistering, black areas of tissue
- Fractures and dislocations — Tenderness, deformity, swelling and discolouration, decreased range of motion, numbness, weakness, bleeding
- High pressure injuries — Pain, swelling, occasional skin discolouration
- Infections — Tenderness, localised warmth, redness, swelling, fever (rare in hand infections), deformity, decreased range of motion
- Lacerations — Tenderness (pain), bleeding, numbness, decreased range of motion (difficulty moving), weakness, pallor (pale or bloodless)
- Soft tissue (flesh) injuries and amputations — Tenderness, deformity (with or without tissue and bone loss), swelling and discolouration, bleeding, weakness, numbness
