[The prognostic value of the Hand Injury Severity Score in industrial hand injuries].
BACKGROUND
We evaluated the value of the "Hand Injury Severity Score" (HISS) in determining the prognosis of industrial hand injuries.


METHODS
Hand injury severity scores of 112 patients (17 females, 95 males; mean age 31 years; range 15 to 54 years) were calculated following surgery for industrial hand injuries. During the course of rehabilitation program, the patients were followed-up regularly. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship between the HISS scores and the time intervals from injury to healing and return to work.


RESULTS
The mean HISS score was 37.1+/-27 (range 6 to 116). The time to healing ranged from 12 to 210 days (mean 73.7+/-40.7 days). All the patients returned to work after a mean of 80.4+/-52.9 days (range 7 to 300 days), mainly to previous working places with (12%) or without (79%) changing job activities. Nine per cent of the workers had to change their jobs. The HISS scores were found to be correlated with the healing period and the time to work (p<0.05 and p<0.000, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicated that HISS was a useful system in predicting the prognosis in the early stages of industrial hand injuries.
Altan
Lale
L
Atatürk Applied Research Center for Rehabilitation, Medicine Faculty of Uludağ University, Bursa, Turkey. lalealtan@uludag.edu.tr
Akin
Selçuk
S
Bingöl
Umit
U
Ozbek
Serhat
S
Yurtkuran
Merih
M
D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006230:Hand Injuries / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D055815:Young Adult