According to the report, more than 2 million people visited the emergency room with hand and wrist injuries and conditions in 2009. Worldwide, the trend is similar. Investigators in the Netherlands quantified these injuries with data from the Dutch Injury Surveillance System, National Hospital Discharge Registry and a patient follow-up survey.
The researchers found that hand and wrist injuries cost about $740 million per year. Productivity costs contributed to 56 percent of the expenses in hand and wrist injuries. Hand and finger fractures were the most expensive injuries to treat, costing approximately $278 million per year — largely due to the loss of productivity in patients.
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A study recently appearing in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery examined the costs associated with hand and wrist injuries, a significant portion of which are brought to the emergency department each year.
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