5 Common Hand Injuries and How To Prevent Them
Your hands are among the most important tools you will ever use. They allow you to perform your work as well as many hobbies. However, because your hands see so much use, they are also susceptible to serious injuries that could affect your ability to work or perform other activities. Fortunately, it may be possible to prevent many common injuries that could affect your hands.
- Ring Avulsion
If you wear wedding bands or other rings while performing manual labor, they could get caught on a piece of machinery, which pulls on them. The force exerted by the trapped ring could result in a finger avulsion injury as it pulls on the hand. The most severe ring avulsion injuries can amputate the finger completely. Even if amputation is averted, serious damage to nerves, ligaments, or tendons could occur from a ring avulsion. One way to avoid this type of injury is to avoid wearing rings at work. Another alternative is to wear a wedding ring made of a soft material like silicone that breaks away under pressure rather than pulling on the finger. You can wear the silicone band on an everyday basis and save your real ring for special occasions or outside of work.
- Tendon Laceration
People who work in food preparation may be at risk for a tendon laceration from sharp knives. These types of injuries usually do not occur when you are using a knife to chop food. They are more likely when you are washing dishes if you have to feel around a sink full of soapy water to find the knife beneath the surface. Another hazard is washing delicate glassware by hand.
Tendons connect the bones to the muscles. Damage to tendons in the hand could cause a loss of dexterity. You can prevent tendon lacerations when washing dishes by cleaning glassware with a handled brush and not putting sharp knives into the water until you are ready to wash them, keeping a hold on the handle at all times so they do not fall beneath the suds and get lost.
- Finger Sprains
A sprain is an injury to a ligament, the tissue that connects bones to one another and allows movement of the joints. The ligaments of the fingers are very delicate and susceptible to injuries. A common cause of finger sprains is trying to lift too much weight at once, which can twist your fingers into awkward positions. For example, trying to carry in too many grocery bags at once can cause finger sprains. You can prevent this by using paper bags and wrapping your arms underneath them or carrying only one bag in each hand at a time. Paper is preferable to plastic as the handles of a heavy-laden plastic bag can cause sprains by exerting force on your fingers, especially when you try to carry more than one in your hand at a time.
- Wrist Fractures
Wrist fractures typically result from a fall onto an outstretched hand. Sometimes this occurs due to balance issues, which may be improved through physical therapy. Slip-and-fall accidents are another common cause of wrist fractures. If you live in a place where it is cold in the winter, remove ice from your sidewalks and be careful when you are walking on other people’s property. Clean up any spills immediately to prevent slips inside and watch for wet floors or slippery spots when you visit stores.
- Tuft Fracture
A tuft fracture occurs at the tip of the finger. It is caused when your finger gets crushed by something heavy or pinched in between two large objects. Tuft fractures occur often in industrial settings when fingers get caught in heavy machinery. They can also occur if the finger is slammed in a car door. The best way to prevent a tuft fracture is to work slowly and pay attention to where your hands are and what they are doing.
Hand injuries can be debilitating. Fortunately, in many cases, they are preventable.
