Aesthetical expression in the traumatized hand

Abstract

Introduction. Traumatic hand injury represents one of the greatest distressing injuries. Severe hand injuries are related to high efforts for surgical and functional reconstructions to accomplish a satisfactory functional and aesthetic result. Purpose. The study was designed to mark the aesthetic importance in the practice of reconstructive surgery on the operated hand, in terms of the correlation between the severity of injuries and the postoperative aesthetic result. Material and methods. In this retrospective study, we evaluated 175 patients with severe hand injuries in the Clinic of Plastic Surgery at IMU Hospital. The sample included 107 men, 68 women, aged between 15-60 years. Hand injuries were on the phalanges in 115 cases, in the metacarpal region 32, at the level of the carpus 23 and in 5 cases was extended on entire surface of the hand. Results. In the current study we examined the correlation between the hand injury severity scoring system and the quality of life of the pacient in terms of aesthetics associated with functional outcome and psychological impact. The study showed that psychological impact of the event, satisfaction of apperance and hand function were found to be correlated to low indicator of injury. Conclusions. The attempt to preserve both the function and the aesthetic aspect in each group of pathologies requires a lot of effort, the higher HISS score, higher costs, and higher technique witch was used. The increase of the quality of life, the integration in the society, as well as the desire for recovery rise gradually.