Broken hand sewing needle injuries in the Northeastern region of Nigeria – A five-year retrospective review

Abstract

Background: In the Northern part of Nigeria, the North-East in particular, the weaving of traditional caps by the people is a common practice and it is associated with injuries to various parts of the body. Aim: The study is aimed at finding out how common is broken hand-sewing needle injuries amongst these group of artisans and why and what part of the body is usually involved and suggest a way out. Materials and Methods: All the case note of the patients who had broken hand sewing needles removed from any part of their bodies were retrieved and analyzed. Results: A total of 192 case notes were retrieved. One hundred and twenty eight, (66.7%), were females while 64, (33.3%) were males, giving a male to female ratio of 1:2. All were aged 1 to 60 years. One hundred and fifty two, (79.2%) of all the patients were below the age of 30 years while 38 (19.8%) were age 31 to 50 years. Those aged above 50 years accounted for 2 (1%). Children of school going age who were out of school accounted for 77 (40.1%), followed by those in school 47 (24.5%). Pre-school age group and those above fifty years of age accounted for 34 (17.7%) and 10 (5.2%) respectively; The foot accounted for 81 (42.2%), followed by the knee 47 (24.5%), hand 31 (16.1%), gluteal area 17, (8.9%), thigh 7 (3.6%), elbow 5 (2.6%) and ankle (2.1%); There was no complication in 168 (87.5%) of the cases after the removal of the broken piece (s), 22 (11.5%) had some degree of wound infection that delayed healing and 2 (1%) had tetanus that required longer hospital stay but were eventually discharged home; 190 (99.9%) of the patients had removal attempted elsewhere before coming to us. Only 2 (1.0 %%) came with no attempt at removal and 2 (1%) came with symptoms of tetanus. Conclusion: The art of producing native caps by hand has come to stay. The dangers associated with the art may just be getting worse. Government must do something about it.