[Telemedicine and hand injuries: a feasibility study]

In France, we count 1,400,000 hand injuries per year. Only 20% are taken care by hand surgeons. In these 20% many of injuries can be healed by non specific centres. Among the 80% remaining injuries, many of complex injuries should be taken care by specialised centres. It is advisable to get a specialised point of view despite the distance. The purpose of this work is to study the feasibility of telediagnosis in hand emergencies. The material contained a computer, a camera and a website which access needed a password. The physician in emergency room built up the e-medical file which can be referred by the expert to give his mind. The agreement of the patients was sought and all the data were unnamed. One hundred and twenty-nine e-medical files were created from a local general hospital. Sixty-six patients had wound injuries and 63 osteo-articular injuries. Sex-ratio was 3.8 and age average was 33 years old. Four hundred and sixty pictures and four movies were stored. The average of duration of tele-expert response was 7 h. Our results underline the great part which can be played by telemedicine in hand emergencies orientations.