Nature, incidence, and cause of work-related amputations in Minnesota

Background The Minnesota Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupationa l Risks (SENSOR) has collected data on the nature, incidence, and cause of work-related amputation injuries that have taken place since 1992. Methods SENSOR defined an amputation as any finger amputation or the loss o f any other body part; 832 workers were identified as having amputation inj uries between 1994 and 1995 and 72% of these workers completed telephone in terviews. Results The amputation injury rate for for Minnesota workers was 39 per 100 ,000 workers, with agriculture and manufacturing having the highest rates. Sixty-six percent of the injuries involved one finger; 14% involved two or more fingers. Persons working with machinery reported 73% of the injuries. Conclusions A closer examination of the incidence and causes for amputation injuries skews that these were not random events. Reliance on human reacti ons to prevent injury is inadequate; therefore, additional research needs t o be conducted. Am. J. Ind. Med. 37:542-550, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc .