The incidence of industrial hand injuries remains high despite the introduction of statutory measures and other advances in health and safety awareness. A prospective study was undertaken to determine if training before employment helps to reduce these injuries. A significant number of patients did not receive any training and this may have played a part in their injury but other contributory factors, such as human error, must also be taken into consideration. Some recommendations are made for future prevention.

No abstract

No abstract

Eur J Plast Surg (1992) 15:69-71 European 'lr~l ,L Q ,'c~urnal el ElaStiC Summary. Twenty-five digital webs from 21 patients,where web "creep" was noted after division of simple syndactyly were reviewed. In all cases web creep was related to delayed healing and the average time to its appearance was 8 months.Web creep is a well-known complication of syndactyly release. Although it is taught that it occurs slowly with growth, a literature search revealed no mention of the timing of occurrence [4-6, 9, 16]. It was our impression that web creep appeared soon after treatment, and a retrospective review was performed to investigate when the phenomenon was first noted and any possible association with the design of flaps, types of grafts, delayed healing or infection. ResultsThe case records of 79 unselected children with syndactyly were studied. Twenty-five webs in 21 children were found to have web creep following release of their simple syndactyly. Sixteen were males and 5 females. Their average age at primary surgery was 4.4 years (range 2-8 years) (Fig. 1). The right hand was involved in 15 cases and the left in 10. The third web was most commonly involved. Dorsal quadrilateral and opposed triangular flaps were used to cover the web in equal numbers. In 2 cases the flap used was not recorded. Split skin grafts were used in 15 webs and full thickness grafts were used in 10. Partial graft take was noted in 17 webs of which 10 were split skin and seven full thickness grafts. The remaining 8 webs were clinically infected with discharging wounds. Bacteriology swabs were taken from 13 webs. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 9 webs together with

No abstract