Grinder Injury of the Hand: A Rare but Devastating Occupational Hazard

Tushar Patial, MBBS, MS,¹ Rajinder K. Mittal, MBBS, MS, MCh,¹ Ramneesh Garg, MBBS, MS, MCh,¹ Sheerin Shah, MBBS, MS, MCh,¹ and Amandeep Kaur, MBBS, MS, MCh¹
Surg J (N Y). 2021 Oct; 7(4): e297–e300.Published online 2021 Oct 22. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1735902
PMCID: PMC8536650PMID: 34703888

Case Report

Case 1

A 22-year-old male patient presented to the emergency with his left hand caught in a commercial meat grinder. After partly dismantling the grinder, the patient was brought to our hospital, with the hand still caught in the grinder ( Fig. 1 ). The patient was taken to the operation theater and after giving general anesthesia, a welder was brought in to cut across the thick metallic components of the grinder using a cutting torch. After removal of the outer shell, the hand was found to have extensive crush injuries. Three discrete longitudinal wounds were present over the fingers, the distal palmar crease, and the distal wrist crease corresponding to the worm of the grinder ( Figs. 2 and ​and 3  ). No bleeding was seen from the wounds till the level of the wrist and the bones of the distal to the wrist were completely crushed with exposure of the underlying tendons ( Fig. 4 ). After washing out the wound with povidone-iodine and saline, a disarticulation was performed at the level of the wrist ( Fig. 5 ). The postoperative period was uneventful, and the patient was discharged after 1 day. He was followed closely in the outpatient department but refused prosthesis and reconstructive surgery for the injury.

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