Secondary finger amputation after a work accident.

Area of Science:

• Hand Surgery
• Trauma Surgery
• Psychological impact of injury

Background:

• Secondary amputations are often necessitated by complications from initial trauma.
• Understanding patient motivations is key to providing comprehensive care post-trauma.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare patient motives for secondary finger amputation.
• To investigate the relationship between work accident status and amputation motive.
• To assess the correlation between sick leave duration and amputation motive in work accident cases.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective single-center study over 11 years.
• Included 216 patients with secondary totalizing finger amputation at the metacarpal base.
• Assessed motives (esthetic, functional, administrative), accident-to-surgery interval, gender, age, and affected digit.

Main Results:

• Motive significantly correlated with gender; administrative motives were predominantly male and work-accident related.
• Longer accident-to-surgery intervals were observed for administrative motives (25.7 months) compared to functional (10.8 months) and esthetic (9 months).
• Accident-to-surgery intervals were longer for work accidents (15.2 months) versus non-work accidents (9.5 months).

Conclusions:

• Age and gender influence patient attitudes towards post-traumatic finger amputation.
• Work accident status impacts motivations, potentially linked to pathological grief rather than compensation claims.
• Emphasizes the need for early follow-up and screening for pathological grief in traumatic amputation victims.