Maxillofacial trauma following road accidents and falls

Introduction: Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) and falls are major causes of maxillofacial injuries posing real challenges for the medical staff. Purpose: To describe the demographic and injury characteristics, as well as the treatment procedures of casualties diagnosed with maxillofacial injuries. Methods: The investigators implemented a multicenter retrospective study composed of hospitalized maxillofacial trauma patients recorded in the Israel Trauma Registry for 2000 to 2011. The predictor variable was mechanism of injury and the outcome variable was type of injury, severity, and hospital resources utilization. Descriptive and bivariate statistics with P values was set at 0.05. Results: The study included 11,592 reported hospitalized maxillofacial trauma patients (39.4% of them were MVA, 33.5% were falls), with a male predominance of a 3:1 ratio. The high-risk age groups were the first 3 decades of life in both etiologies, while age groups above 75 years were also frequent in falls. Severity of maxillofacial injuries, multiple injuries, admission to intensive care units, hospitalization for more than 15 days, inpatient mortality, and rehabilitation after discharge was significantly higher in MVA compared with falls. Conversely, maxillofacial surgeries were performed slightly more among patients injured in falls (34.1% and 31.1% respectively), as tongue and mouth are more prone targets in falls, compared with zygoma, maxilla, mandible, and teeth in MVA. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that the etiologies present an entire separate pattern of trauma. A better understanding and proper identification of their high-risk groups should lead to appropriate prevention programs and treatment protocols.