MEASURING DISABILITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE AFTER HAND TRAUMA

Introduction/goal :  Hand injuries comprise up to one fourth of all injuries and require excellent skills and aggressive physical therapy with still high potential to cause long term physical and functional disability which affects one’s quality of life. Our goal was to evaluate the disability and quality of life after hand trauma using two different scoring systems and also, evaluating correlation between them. Methods : A retrospective study was made among patients who were operated on at our clinic due to acute hand trauma during the two years period 2008 and 2009. One year after finished treatment including physical therapy, phone interview were made and patients were answering quick DASH score which estimates disability and WHOQoL BREF score which estimates quality of life thorough four domains: physical, social, environmental and psychological. Results: From 182 patients who satisfied our inclusion criteria, only 60 were reached to finish the scores, 46(17%) men and 14(23%) women. Average age was 45,8 years. The mean DASH score was 21,8, the highest DASH values were found in group of patients 51-60years old, and the lowest in those younger than 30. As age rises disability increases. The lowest quality of life was found in physical domain, while the highest in social. Interestingly, social domain was decreasing as age rise. Women had lower quality of life in all four domains compared to men. Strong negative correlation was found between values of these two scores. Conclusion: Hand and arm trauma are associated with a great negative impact on quality of life in injured. Quick DASH and WHOQOL BREF score are excellent tools for evaluating disability and quality of life after hand trauma.