The practice of plastic surgery in emergency trauma surgery: a retrospective glance at 10,732 patients

The number of patients applying to the emergency Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery outpatient clinic varies considerably depending on the sociocultural profiles of societies. Due to the abundance of anatomic regions comprising the targets of this field of specialization, plastic surgery is continuously gaining in importance in emergency traumatology.

In this study, 10,732 patients admitted to the outpatient clinic of Emergency Plastic Surgery in Şişli Etfal Training and Research Hospital were evaluated retrospectively regarding etiology, sex, age distribution, injury characteristics, and treatment.

While 64% of all patients had forearm and hand injuries, 28% had maxillofacial injuries, and 8% had tissue defects. There was a male: female ratio of 4: 1, and the mean age of all patients was 22.9 years. The mean age of patients (males 81%) admitted with upper extremity injuries was 22.3 years. Most of the upper extremity injuries were due to glassware cuts (33%). The mean age of patients admitted with maxillofacial trauma was 23.2 years. Among the patients with head-and-neck injuries, the most frequent cause of trauma was traffic accidents (38%).

Regarding the frequency and characteristics of the patients treated, we suggest that plastic surgery shows a progressively increasing significance and widening field of practice in emergency traumatology and, as no similar study currently exists, ours will contribute significantly to the literature.