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Nutritional status of substance abusers with mandible fractures
R C Manus1, T B Dodson, E J Miller
1Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Purpose:
The purposes of this study were 1) to assess the validity of patient self-report in identifying illegal substance abuse and 2) to identify nutritional deficiencies in substance abusers presenting for treatment of mandible fractures.
Patients And Methods:
To address the research purposes, a prospective cohort study was conducted of patients presenting for treatment of mandible fractures. A urine drug screen was used to determine the validity of patient self-report of substance abuse. For purposes of assessing nutritional status, 2 categories of substance abusers were identified: illegal and legal (alcohol). The nutritional status was measured using various laboratory markers.
Results:
The sample was composed of 93 subjects. Urine drug studies were available for 32 patients. Of the 22 patients who denied illegal drug use, 12 (55%) had a positive drug screen. Of the 10 patients reporting a positive history of illicit drug use, 7 (70%) had a positive urine drug screen (P = .47). A positive correlation was found between alcohol exposure and serum aspartate aminotransferase, mean corpuscular volume, and lactate dehydrogenase. Positive drug screens also were associated with increased serum ferritin levels.
Conclusions:
The results of this study suggest that patient self-report of illicit drug use may be unreliable. The findings also suggest that legal and illegal substance abusers presenting for treatment of mandible fractures have minimal nutritional deficiencies.