Hand Injury with Paint-Gun

Paint-gun injuries are notoriously disabling, far more so than those caused by other foreign materials as they carry a high morbidity rate. Forty-three cases of high pressure injection injury due to paint-guns have been reported in the English literature. The four new cases reported here reflect the ffects of injury by the epoxy resins, relatively recently introduced and widely used in heavy industry. The dispersion f the paint is determined by the volume and the injection pressure (Kaufman, 1966, 1968 a & b). To this should be added the elasticity of the tissue and the viscosity of the paint as shown by this study. The more viscous the paint, he less the dispersion. The high morbidity rate of the paint-gun injury is therefore attributable to he severe compression of the tissues. The resultant severe compression of neurovascular bundles of the digit leads to neurovascular compromise. This explains the striking absence of pain soon after th