Little is known of the scale of avoidable
injuries presenting to medical services on a national level in the UK. This study aimed to assess the type and incidence of preventable wrist and
hand injuries (as defined by the core research team) at a national level in the UK. 28 UK hospitals undertook a service evaluation of all hand
trauma cases presenting to their units over a 2 week period in early 2021 identifying demographical and aetiological information about
injuries sustained. 1909 patients were included (184 children) with a median age of 40 (IQR 25-59) years. The commonest five types of injury were fractures of the wrist; single phalangeal or metacarpal fractures; fingertip
injuries; and
infection, with the most common mechanisms being mechanical falls and manual labour. This is the first extensive survey of preventable
hand injuries in the UK, identifying a need for further work into prevention to reduce healthcare burden and cost. 50% of
injuries presenting to hand surgeons are preventable, with the most common
injuries being single fractures of the wrist, phalanx and metacarpal. Few preventable
injuries were related to alcohol or
narcotic intoxication. Further research is needed to identify how to initiate injury prevention measures for
hand injuries, particularly focussed towards hand fracture prevention.