[Acute care of soft tissue injuries in the head and neck region]

Soft tissue injuries are a common consequence of head and neck trauma. With injuries being highly individual and varying depending on the underlying trauma, it is difficult to establish standardized guidelines for head and neck trauma in general. The main goal of this study was to showcase the distribution of soft tissue injury types and the principles pertaining to acute care of the individual clinical presentations.

A retrospective evaluation was carried out using all trauma-relevant ICD-10 codes for trauma to the head (S00.- to S09.-) and neck (S10.- to S19.-) among patients who were treated at the authors' clinic-a certified national trauma center-during a period of 10 years (2012 to and including 2021).

A total of 8375 patients with head and neck trauma were treated during the observation period, i.e., an average of 836 patients per year. Within this collective, 2981 trauma cases involving soft tissue injuries were documented. Superficial injuries to the head (S00.-) and open wounds to the head (S01.-) were the most common head and neck soft tissue injuries, with 1649 and 920 cases, respectively.

The case numbers of soft tissue injuries generally show an inverse correlation to the required underlying trauma: diagnoses of the categories S00 and S01 occur very often; injuries which only occur after severe trauma, such as traumatic amputation at neck level (S18), are rare. According to current literature, penetrating neck traumas should be treated using a no-zone approach. In Europe, penetrating neck injuries are rather rare because of low crime rates and strict weapon laws.