Slipping with the waste (a wheelie bin hand injury)

A right hand dominant man in his 60s was moving his wheelie bin when he tripped and landed still holding on to the handle. His hand was trapped between the handle and the ground. He sustained lacerations at the level of the proximal interphalangeal joints of all the fingers of his right hand. The index and middle fingers had damage to the proximal phalangeal articular cartilage and central slip. The central slip loss in the middle finger required reconstruction. The wounds healed without complication by 4 weeks, at which point the patient's fingers were mobilised; he regained almost full range of movement by 3 months.