Psychological aspects of mutilating hand injuries.

The immediate and long-term outcome of a mutilating hand injury can be positively influenced by health care professionals adopting a biopsychosocial perspective toward treatment and management. Such an injury produces a psychological and social impact that should be openly and candidly addressed with the injured individual and with the family. The earlier and the more skillfully these issues are addressed, the more likely it is that psychological factors will not impede functional outcome.