Maxillofacial Injuries in an Eastern Nepal Tertiary Hospital

Maxillofacial injury is a major health problem, and injury patterns vary in different societies. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the pattern of maxillofacial injuries presenting to BPKIHS.

Patients with age >15 years presenting with maxillofacial injuries from May, 2019 to April, 2020 were included in this cross-sectional descriptive study. Demographic profile, etiology, delay in presentation, pattern of soft tissue/ bony/ dental injuries, treatment modality were recorded and analyzed using Microsoft excel.

Within one year study period 190 patients with age group >15 years presented with facial injuries. There were 164 male (86.32%) and 26 female (13.68 %) patients (M:F=6.3: 1) with mean age of 34.96 years. Road Traffic Accident (RTA) (61.58%) was the most common etiology. Majority of the patients reported to hospital within 2-6 hrs of injury. Other associated injuries was present in 36.32 % of patients with orthopedic injury (60.87%) being common. Soft tissue injuries were seen in 80.53% patients, of which 49.02% were associated with facial fractures. Mandible fractures were seen in 56.19% of hard tissue injuries, of which 40.68% had multiple fractures followed by 28.81% with parasymphysis fracture. Within 37.14% patients with midface fractures, zygoma fracture (33.33%) was the commonest. Intervention was done in 80.95 % patients, with ORIF (72.38 %) being the commonest. Dentoalveolar injuries was seen in 22.63 % patients, of which 48.19% were associated with facial fractures.

Our observations show that motor vehicle accidents were the most frequent cause of maxillofacial injury.