Transbuccal Approach in Management of Mandible Angle Fracture

With expanding dimensions and an eminent member of trauma team many Ear Nose Throat specialists are exposed to Oro-maxillofacial trauma. Mandibular angle is a difficult region to operate owing to its unique anatomy. Anglefractures form around 30-40% of the mandibular fracture. Open reduction and internal plating is the management of choice in most angle fractures and various approaches have been described in literature. We conducted a study of trans-buccal approach for management of mandibular angle fractures. It was a non-randomised observational study. 57 patients of mandible angle fractures were included in the study. The ORIF was done in these pts under general anaesthesia after careful surgical planning using trans-buccal approach. This approach included an intraoral exposure with stab incision for the trans-buccal passage of drill and screw diver. Out of 57 cases in our study 33 were males and 24 were females. 23/57 patients were in age group 25-35 years whereas 19/57 patients were in age group 15-25 years All 57 patients had good fracture healing. Occlusion dysfunction was seen in only 1 case. Infection was seen 3 cases while intraoral exposure of plates occurred in 2 cases. Average mouth opening was 43.3 mm at 6 weeks with progressive improvement on follow up. Extraoral scar healed well with very good cosmesis in all cases. We strongly suggest the use of transbuccal approach for ORIF in mandibular angle fractures owing to the ease of procedure, comfort of surgeon and less complication rate.