Traumatic Finger Amputations: Epidemiology and Mechanism of Injury, 2010-2019

Abstract

Background: Traumatic finger amputations are a common and well-known hand injury, yet there are few studies addressing long-term epidemiologic data and associated mechanisms of injury. This paper aims to use a large national database to identify the relationship of patient demographics and mechanism of injury in finger amputations.

Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) was queried for finger amputations in the United States from 2010 to 2019. Patient demographic information was collected and analyzed by gender, race, age, and further statistical analysis was performed to determine correlations with consumer products.

Results: Finger amputations accounted for an estimated 234,304 emergency department visits from 2010 to 2019. Most of the patients were male (79%) and identified as white (46.2%). The most commonly implicated products overall were power saws and related power tools, followed by doors and then lawn mowers. A bimodal age incidence was observed with the highest incidence rates occurring in children ages 0 to 4, followed by a second peak incidence rate in the adults ages 65 to 74. The most common mechanisms of injury were found to differ in patients less than 19 and those 20 and over.

Conclusion: Traumatic finger amputations have a bimodal incidence with changing epidemiology and mechanism of injury with age. The first peak occurs from ages 0 to 4, involves predominantly doors, and has a male to female ratio of 1.30. The second peak occurs from ages 65 to 74, involves mostly power saws, and has a male to female ratio of 6.68.

Level of evidence: Prognostic, Level IV.

Keywords: digit trauma; finger trauma; hand surgery; hand trauma; traumatic amputation.

Figure 1.

Distribution of traumatic finger amputations by race. Note. This figure depicts the percentage of traumatic finger amputations by race.

Figure 2.

National estimate of traumatic finger amputations by gender. Note. This figure lists the national estimate of traumatic finger amputations, incidence only, for 2010 through 2019. Associated 95% Confidence intervals are listed in Supplemental Table 2. ^aUnstable data for female cases.

Figure 3.

Incident rates of traumatic finger amputations by gender. Note. This figure reports the national estimate of finger amputations in 100,000 person years based on available population data by 5-year age groups.

Figure 4.

Proportional distribution of traumatic amputations by gender. Note. This figure shows the overall distribution of traumatic finger amputations by each 5-year age group and compares the percentages between genders. Corresponding p-values shown in Table 3.