When a Cut Finger Is More Serious Than It Might Seem

25 January 2011

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Hospital emergency rooms treat injured fingers all the time. Without treatment, a bad cut can lead to permanent damage. But how should a person know when a bleeding cut is serious enough to require medical attention?

We asked Dr. Martin Brown, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Virginia.

First, the medical term for a cut or tear in the skin is a laceration. Dr. Brown says the length is usually not as important as the depth. He says a long cut on a finger can likely be treated without a visit to a doctor if the wound is not very deep.

MARTIN BROWN: "If you have a short but deep laceration where there's been a structure underneath that's been damaged -- a tendon, a nerve, a blood vessel -- it may, in fact, need professional attention."

Some injuries -- like a fingertip that gets cut off -- might even require surgery to repair.

MARTIN BROWN: "That requires a specialist to either file down the bone or reattach the fingertip. More often, filing down the bone is what is done because reattaching a fingertip is often not successful."

How a wound bleeds can be a sign of how serious it is. Minor cuts usually produce what is known as venous bleeding. This means the blood flows steadily from the injury. The bleeding will often stop when pressure is put on the wound.