Do-It-Yourself Injuries

Take a nation of do-it-yourselfers, add a ready supply of cheap nail guns and what do you get? About 37,000 nail gun injuries a year, according to the CDC. Since 1991, nail-gun injuries have risen about 200%.

"This increase likely corresponds to an increase in availability during the 1990s of inexpensive pneumatic nail guns and air compressors in home hardware stores."

The proof is in the, well, x-ray. Below is a patient that I recently treated in the ED. That nail is not iatrogenic, it was shot into his elbow from a nail gun that his friend was using.

Nail with piece of clothing pinned to elbow











Radiograph of nail in elbow














(story from NY Times, comments welcomed)

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