Self-reported cold sensitivity in patients with traumatic hand injuries or hand-arm vibration syndrome - an eight year follow up

Table 1 Characteristics of patients with traumatic hand injury and HAVS

Parameter	Traumatic hand injury n = 64	HAVS n = 26
Gender (male/female)	50/14	24/2
Age at 8 year follow up^1,2	51 (28–86)	61 (31–73)
Smoker (yes/no)	14/50	4/22
Time since injury (years) at 8 year follow up³	8.25 (7.75–9)	-
Years of vibration exposure at 1 year follow up¹	-	30 (4–46)
CISS score (abnormal/normal)⁴	17/43	16/8
DASH score at 1 year follow up (0–100)^5,1,6	23 (2–60)⁵	34 (5–70)⁵
Sense of coherence (SOC, range 13–91) score at 8 year follow up^3,7	74 (28–91)	67 (50–91)
HISS at injury^1,8	77 (10–305)	-
Vibration-induced white fingers (VWF)⁹	-	15/26
Stage
0		11⁹
1		5
2		7
3		3
4		0
Sensorineural symptoms	-	23/26
Stage
0		3
1		8
2		7
3		8
Both VWF and sensorineural symptoms¹⁰	-	20/26
Impaired vibrotactile sense¹¹	-	22/26

¹Median (IQR).
²Patients with HAVS were significantly older than patients with traumatic hand injuries (p = 0.004).
³Median (range).
⁴Internal drop out: traumatic hand injury (n = 4), HAVS (n = 2). CISS score >50 = abnormal self-reported cold sensitivity[21].
⁵Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH). 0 = no disability, 100 = most severe disability[24].
⁶Patients with HAVS had significantly higher scores indicating more severe disability (p = 0.001).
⁷The 13-item scale. The scores on each item ranges from 1 (never) to 7 (very often). A high score indicates a strong SOC[18].
⁸Hand Injury Severity Score[23].
⁹Stockholm Workshop scale[25]. 8 out of 11 patients had cold sensitivity without blanching of skin (i.e. equal to 0.5 in a modified Stockholm Workshop scale, VWF). Staging is based on the highest stage on the most injured hand.
¹⁰Patients having both a VWF score ≥ 0.5 and sensorineural score > 0.
¹¹Sensibility index (SI) < 0.8 in at least one finger[26]. SI-index is a measure of vibrotactile sense and is a ratio of the integrated area below a test curve and a corresponding age reference population. An index > 0.8 is regarded as an indication of abnormality[27].

ISSN: 1471-2474