About a fourth of wrist work trauma does not cause time off work and activity cessation, irrespective of the nature of the lesion.

The proportion is greater for sprains (34.73%) than for fractures (20.32 %).

The total time of temporary disability TTD following a work accident involving the wrist is greater in sprains (55.3 % of TTD for ligament lesions and 32.5 % for fractures – 2006 and 2007 together). One out of two fractures will lead to permanent disability (47.1 %), whereas this is true for less than 10 % of ligament lesions (9.94 %) (Table 2).

TTD is greater for fractures or ligament lesions than other wrist lesions. Among patients with wrist fractures and sprains, 71.41 % return to work within a month from the injury, while 89.19 % patients with other wrist lesions return to work within the month.

TTD seems shorter for sprains than for fractures. 81.5 % of wrist sprain patients return to work within a month from the injury, while only 33.9% fracture patients do so. Similarly, 16 % sprain patients return to work within 6 months, while 50 % fracture patients do so.

The proportion of ‘long duration TTD’ (>6 months) is significantly greater for fractures and sprains than for other lesions. 3.76% patients with bone and joint wrist lesion (fracture or ligament lesion) will have TTD greater than 6 months. This proportion falls to 1.58 % for patients with other wrist lesions.

The percentage of long duration TTD accidents (6 months to 1 year) is significantly greater for wrist fractures (4.8 %) than for ligament lesions (1.0 %) and other wrist lesions (0.62 %).

The percentage of work accidents with very long TTD (>1 year) is tiny for fractures (0.37 %) and ligament lesions (<0.10 %) (Table 3).