Incidence and Severity of Maxillofacial Injuries During the Syrian Civil War in Syrian Soldiers and Civilians

The aim of this study was to assess the maxillofacial injuries (MFIs) and our surgical approaches in the Syrian Civil War that emerged during the spring of 2011, among Syria's government and Syrians.

The present study is a prospective clinical study of injured patients at Turkey's Border Hospitals during the Syrian Civil Conflict. Patients' data cover to all emergency and plastic surgery hospitals throughout Turkey. We assessed the patients' data according to location of trauma, duration of hospitalization, the severity and etiology of MFIs with the Injury Severity Score.

MFIs were found in 112 of the 956 wounded. The injuries occurred in 69 civilians (61.6%) and 43 soldiers (38.3%). The mean age ranged from 8 to 66 (mean: 29,1 ± 12). Eighty-two percent or higher rates of the injuries needed >4 days' hospitalization. We observed the mortality at a rate of 13.3% for the MFIs. Majority of the MFIs were accompanied by >3 concomitant injuries (n = 59; 52.6%). Most of the facial injuries were located at Mandibula (n = 75; 66.9%), Maxilla (n = 69; 61.6%) and orbitofrontal (n = 52; 46.4%) regions.

Severity and incidence of MFIs were extremely high compared with previously published studies of other wars, especially affecting the civilians in the Syrian Civil War. The high rates of LeFort III fractures exhibit its devastating damages on civilians.