May 22, 2012 11:08 AM, By Laura Walter via EHS Today
More than 2 million people visited U.S. emergency rooms for symptoms related to the hand and wrist in 2009. Now, researchers in the Netherlands have found that in addition to being pervasive, hand and wrist injuries also are one of the most costly injury types.
According to a new study appearing in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, hand and wrist injuries represent the most expensive type of injury in the Netherlands, costing about $740 million U.S. dollars annually.
The study, "Economic Impact of Hand and Wrist Injuries: Health-Care Costs and Productivity Costs in a Population Study," examined the frequency, cost of treatment and lost productivity associated with hand and wrist injuries and compared them to other emergency department injuries.
