Taming The SRU
Taming The SRU - December 28, 2020 - By Gottula A & Lane B
"Emergency departments in the United States treat nearly 3.5 million upper extremity injuries annually, with 38% involving the fingers [1]. Frequently, hand and finger injuries are triaged to the fast track area: fingertip injuries, lacerations, paronychias…. Many of these patients present with self-evident exams and injury patterns. A few serious hand injuries, though, can present with subtle findings on the initial exam — emergency physicians must beware the missed diagnosis, because those exams will evolve and worsen: high-pressure injection injuries were recently reviewed in Nov 2020 by Life in the Fast Lane, and below we review hydrofluoric (HF) acid exposures. HF exposures present as hand/digit injuries in more than half of cases [2,3]. In this article we review the epidemiology, mechanisms of injury, and therapy for hydrofluoric (HF) acid exposures..."