ArticleJournal of hand surgery global online2025
Gunshot-Related Metacarpal Fractures: A Retrospective Study and Single Urban Center Experience.
Article in Journal of hand surgery global online, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: As gun violence continues to grow, hand surgeons are increasingly called upon to manage complex ballistic hand fractures. However, there is a relative scarcity of literature on civilian gunshot-related metacarpal fractures. In this study, we examine the management strategies and outcomes for ballistic metacarpal fractures at a high-volume, level-1 urban trauma center. Methods: Through the use of an institutional database of all patients with firearm-related fractures who presented to our level 1 trauma center, we identified all patients with ballistic hand fractures over a 4-year period (2019-2023). Charts were reviewed for metacarpal fractures and associated injuries, and physical examination characteristics at initial presentation. We evaluated the surgical treatments, postoperative complications, and outcomes following the treatment of these injuries. Results: Over a 4-year period, 98 patients sustained a total of 139 firearm-related metacarpal fractures. Of these, 28 patients with 39 fractures were lost to follow-up. Among the remaining, a total of 100 metacarpal fractures were treated with a mean follow-up of 5.5 months (range, 2-24 months). Of these, 79 (79%) required surgical intervention. Soft tissue injuries associated with these fractures were observed in 36% of cases. Among the 79 surgically treated fractures, complications included a 13% nonunion rate, an 18% malunion rate, and a 4% incidence of deep infections. Overall, the most common complication was stiffness, reported in 62% of operative metacarpals. The average active range of motion at the metacarpophalangeal joint was 58. Conclusions: This large retrospective series of gunshot-related metacarpal injuries treated at a high-volume trauma center presents findings and outcomes for a challenging injury. The findings showed a moderate risk of nonunion and high rates of stiffness following these injuries, emphasizing the critical need for further research to develop optimal management strategies aimed at reducing complications in the treatment of firearm-related metacarpal fractures. Type of study/level of evidence: Prognostic IV.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.