A 21 year old baker has a Colles fracture of the wrist in his dominant hand in 2000 resulting in grip strength readings of: 65,55, 60 / 107,106,105. What is the permanent disability?

A 21 year old baker has a Colles fracture of the wrist in his dominant hand in 2000 resulting in grip strength readings of: 65,55, 60 / 107,106,105. What is the permanent disability?

• A. 14 percent
• B. 17.1 percent
• C. 18.2 percent
• D. 13 percent

Answer: (D)

In this type of SIP question, the grip-strength deficit is used to estimate permanent disability by comparing the injured hand to the uninjured hand and then converting that loss through the rating schedule. First, average the grip strengths for each hand: injured hand becomes (65 + 55 + 60) / 3 = 60, and the uninjured hand becomes (107 + 106 + 105) / 3 = 106. The loss relative to the healthy hand is 106 − 60 = 46. That’s a loss of 46 out of 106, which is 46/106 ≈ 0.434, or about 43.4% loss of grip strength. The permanent disability rating shown in this scenario translates that grip-strength loss into a final percentage using the SIP rating rules for a Colles fracture of the dominant wrist. In this case, the loss corresponds to about 13% permanent disability. So the key idea is: compute the relative loss of grip strength between hands, then apply the rating schedule to convert that loss into the permanent disability percentage.

In this type of SIP question, the grip-strength deficit is used to estimate permanent disability by comparing the injured hand to the uninjured hand and then converting that loss through the rating schedule.

First, average the grip strengths for each hand: injured hand becomes (65 + 55 + 60) / 3 = 60, and the uninjured hand becomes (107 + 106 + 105) / 3 = 106. The loss relative to the healthy hand is 106 − 60 = 46. That’s a loss of 46 out of 106, which is 46/106 ≈ 0.434, or about 43.4% loss of grip strength.

The permanent disability rating shown in this scenario translates that grip-strength loss into a final percentage using the SIP rating rules for a Colles fracture of the dominant wrist. In this case, the loss corresponds to about 13% permanent disability.

So the key idea is: compute the relative loss of grip strength between hands, then apply the rating schedule to convert that loss into the permanent disability percentage.