The current trend in hand surgery has streamlined the treatment of acute hand trauma to the modern-day surgery unit. As the volume of hand trauma caseloads continues to increase, it is becoming increasingly difficult to schedule patients for theater on the day of injury. It, therefore, becomes paramount to adequately triage patients in accordance with best clinical evidence and predictors of poor clinical outcomes. Animal models suggest that the earlier flexor tendons are repaired, the better the patient functional outcome. The largest study to date examining the timing of injury to functional post-operative outcome also recognizes that the faster these injuries are repaired, the better the patient outcome. Age-related changes to tendon biomechanics and structure are well-documented. However, no conclusive evidence exists specific to the degenerative changes and mechanical properties of flexor tendons in humans. The animal model strongly suggests that increasing age is associated with local architectural and biological changes that directly affect the tendon repair functional outcome. Although retrospective analyses to date suggest that smoking is a negative outcome predictor for functional tendon outcome, no prospective large-scale studies exist. A large, single-center prospective study specifically examining the positive and negative outcome predictors of flexor tendon repairs and functional post-operative outcome is warranted. The negative predictive model of patient care may enable us to further council patients preoperatively and stratify patients according to clinical need.

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A 42-year-old man reported to our service with a 1-week history of vague cervical neck pain on a background history of a gelastic seizure disorder. Radiological imaging confirmed a type II hangman’s fracture through the C2 pedicle. A CT angiogram of carotid and vertebral arteries was normal, and the patient was managed with an occipitocervical fusion. The patient had no neurological insult and was discharged on day 5 with a Miami-J collar for 6 weeks. Although there are case report evidence of lumbar and thoracic vertebral fractures secondary to seizures, this is the first report of a spine injury resulting from a gelastic seizure.