Background: Donkey pumps are commonly used in Pakistan households to pump water but are open the cause of hand injuries especially in children. This article aims to highlight the alarming incidence of such injuries leading to crippled hand in children. Methodology: This retrospective study was conducted at one the busiest tertiary care hospitals, Civil Hospital, Karachi, from July 2017 to January 2020, by reviewing the medical records of patients. All children, less than 14 years old, who present with hand trauma due to donkey pump in ER or OPD were included. Gender, hand dominance, type of injury, number of involved fingers, and presence of any fracture or tendon injury were recorded. Data analysis was done with SPSS 22.0. Results: A total of 147 children presented with hand injury due to donkey pumps. 105 (71.42%) were boys and 42 (28.5%) were girls. 75.4 % were right-handed and 24.5 % were left-hand dominant. Most frequent was the involvement of single-digit. Regarding injury pattern, severyl crushed fingers were present in 36.7% of injuries. Fingertip injury without any fracture was present in 22.4%, 34.7% had an injury to distal phalanx with tuft fracture, 6.1% of injuries involved middle and proximal phalanx with fracture. All cases were accidental in nature. Conclusion: Domestic Donkey Pumps cause an alarming incidence of hand injuries in children, which can be prevented by ensuring these pumps are safe for household use.
Keywords | Hand injury, Domestic donkey pump, prevention, hand fractures
References 1. Shah SS, Rochette LM, Smith GA. Epidemiology of pediatric hand injuries presenting to United States emergency departments, 1990 to 2009. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2012;72(6):1688–94. 2. Worlock P, Stower M. Fracture patterns in Nottingham children. J PediatrOrthop. 1986;6(6):656–60 3. Nellans KW, Chung KC. Pediatric hand fractures. Hand Clin. 2013;29(4):569–78 4. Liu EH, Alqahtani S, Alsaaran RN, et al. A prospective study of pediatric hand fractures and review of the literature. PediatrEmerg Care. 2014;30:299–304. 5. Shah SS, Rochette LM, Smith GA. Epidemiology of pediatric hand injuries presenting to United States emergency departments, 1990 to 2009. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2012;72:1688–1694. 6. Khoso, Salim & Ansari, Abdul Aziz. (2015). An overview on emerging water scarcity in Pakistan, its causes, impacts and remedial measures. Journal of Applied Engineering Science. Volume 13. 35-44. 10.5937/ jaes 13-6445. 7. Cornwall R, Ricchetti ET. Pediatric phalanx fractures: unique challenges and pitfalls. ClinOrthopRelat Res. 2006;445:146–56. 8. Wahba G, Cheung K. Pediatric hand injuries: Practical approach for primary care physicians. Can Fam Physician. 2018;64(11):803–810. 9. Vollman D, Smith GA. Epidemiology of Lawn Mower– Related Injuries to Children in the United States, 1990– 2004. Pediatrics. 2006 Aug 1;118(2):e273-8. 10. Noffsinger DL, Johnson SR, Wheeler K, Shi J, Xiang H, Groner JI. Exercise treadmills: a cause of significant hand burns in young children. Journal of Burn Care & Research. 2017 Jul 1;38(4):215-9. 11. Trofa DP, Obana KK, Swindell HW, Shiu B, Noticewala MS, Popkin CA, Ahmad CS. Increasing Burden of Youth Baseball Elbow Injuries in US Emergency Departments. Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine. 2019 May 13;7(5):2325967119845636. 12. Marchalik R, Rada EM, Albino FP, Sauerhammer TM, Boyajian MJ, Rogers GF, Oh AK. Upper extremity friction burns in the pediatric patient: a 10-year review. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. 2018 Dec;6(12). 13. Vadivelu R, Dias JJ, Burke FD, Stanton J. Hand injuries in children: a prospective study. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. 2006 Jan 1;26(1):29-35. 14. Bhende MS, Dandrea LA, Davis HW. Hand injuries in children presenting to a pediatric emergency department. Annals of emergency medicine. 1993 Oct 1;22(10): 1519- 23. 15. Gellman H. Fingertip-nail bed injuries in children: current concepts and controversies of treatment. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2009 Jul 1;20(4):1033-5. 16. Charnley, J. The closed treatment of common fractures. Cambridge University Press; 2003. 17. Grobbelaar AO, Hudson DA. Flexor tendon injuries in children. The Journal of Hand Surgery: British & European Volume. 1994 Dec 1;19(6):696-8. 18. Fitoussi F, Lebellec Y, Frajman JM, Penneçot GF. Flexor tendon injuries in children: factors influencing prognosis. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics. 1999 Nov 1; 19(6):818. 19. Hill C, Riaz M, Mozzam A, Brennen MD. A regional audit of hand and wrist injuries: a study of 4873 injuries. Journal of Hand Surgery. 1998 Apr;23(2):196-200
All published material becomes the sole property of the Pakistan Journal of Plastic Surgery, copyrighted by the Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgeons (PAPS). By submitting an article or brief communication, all authors agree to these conditions.
During the submission process, all authors have required to complete a copyright transfer agreement, “Author Consent form” By completing the copyright transfer agreement, you are transferring copyright of figures, tables, videos, and the content of the manuscript to the Pakistan Association of Plastic Surgeons (PAPS).
If you do not wish to or cannot transfer copyright of some or all of your content, please contact the editorial office at pjpspakistan@gmail.com.