Pulmonary function of adult Nigerians placed on intermaxillary fixation

The use of intermaxillary fixation to treat jaw fractures is a procedure still widely carried out in third world countries either because of the unavailability of miniplates to treat jaw fractures or due to their expensive nature. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of intermaxillary fixation on ventilatory functions of adult Nigerians so as to establish baseline data for future comparisons in Africans.

One hundred and forty-eight subjects comprising 120 (81%) males and 28 (19%) females were studied. Their age ranged from 18 to 60 years with a mean age of 24 years. The patients' pulmonary function tests were done using a vitalograph spirometer to measure FEV(1) and FVC immediately postoperatively, 7 days postoperatively, immediately after removal of IMF, and on the 7th day of IMF removal. The mean values of the FEV(1) and FVC at 7 days postoperatively were significantly higher than the values obtained immediate postoperatively (p<0.001). The FEV(1) and FVC values obtained immediate postoperatively and 7 days postoperatively were significantly lower than the values obtained immediately after removal of the wires (p<0.001).

The results also show that there was a further increase of the mean values of FEV(1) and FVC on the 7th day of wires removal.

It was observed that there was a reduction of pulmonary function values due to airway obstruction following IMF. The reduction was 5.7% to 8.9% in males, and 5.0% to 6.9% in females compared to the normal values established for adult Nigerians. In addition, the average of the mean FVC values immediately postoperatively and 7 days postoperatively were 87.9% and 90.9% for males and 91.7% to 93.6% for females respectively of their normal values obtained from the FVC values on the 7th day of wire removal.