Comparison of Pain Catastrophic Scale and Anxiety in Patients With Boxer's Fracture and Other Types of Hand Fractures

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2023-02, Vol.15 (2), p.e35019-e35019
• Main Authors: Bozduman, Ömer, Yadigaroğlu, Metin, Okutan, Ahmet E, Süren, Mustafa, Güçlü, Berk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Chi-square test; Disability; Emergency Medicine; Fractures; Mann-Whitney U test; Normal distribution; Orthopedics; Pain; Patients; Questionnaires; Self esteem; Trauma
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.35019

The Pain Catastrophic Scale (PCS) is generally associated with high and low post-recovery satisfaction and measures the pain perception of patients in the literature. This study aims to evaluate the association of deliberate (as in a fight or anger causing punching a wall) boxer's fractures with catastrophic pain compared to accidental (as in a fall, accidental knocking it against a wall, etc.) fractures and evaluate the effect of anxiety about fracture union and functional recovery on clinical outcomes.  A total of 62 male patients with metacarpal fractures, 31 as a result of deliberate punching (1st group) and 31 with metacarpal fractures as a result of an accident (2nd group), who applied to the emergency department or orthopedic clinic with the diagnosis of metacarpal fracture between January 2021 and October 2022, were included in the study. All patients were selected from patients who were followed up with conservative plaster/splint. The PCS scores of the patients were evaluated comparatively with the clinical results measured after at least six weeks. The mean age of the patients was 30.8 (18-50) in the 1st group and 34.8 (18-64) in the 2nd Group, and no statistically significant difference was found (p=0.274). While the median PCS score was 10.5 (interquartile range {IQR}: 12.3) for the 1st group, the median PCS score was 17.5 (IQR: 14.5) for the 2nd group, and the PCS score was statistically significantly lower in group 1 (p=0.009). While the median Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) value was 0 (IQR: 0.3) for the 1st group, the median VAS value was 1 (IQR: 2.0) for the 2nd group, and the VAS score was statistically significantly lower in the 1st group (p