War injuries to the head and neck

During the 1991-1992 war in Croatia, 7,043 wounded persons were treated at Dr Josip Bencević General Hospital in Slavonski Brod. Among them, 728 (580 soldiers and 148 civilians) had war injuries to the head and neck and were admitted to the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Cervicofacial Surgery. There were 541 (74.3%) patients with head injuries, 117 (16.0%) with neck injuries, and 70 (9.6%) with a combination of head and neck injuries. The wounds were mostly inflicted by shell and bomb fragments (542 wounds, or 74.5%). War injuries of the facial bones were preliminarily or definitively treated. Preliminary treatment was used for the wounds with multifragmentary fractures and extensive soft-tissue defects. Definitive treatment was used in lesions of cervical structures. Immediate exploration of the neck was performed on 84 patients with penetrating neck wounds. Exploration was positive in 49 patients. Concerning long-term complications, two cases of partial paralysis of the cranial plexus and one case each of quadriplegia, hemiplegia, and glottic paralysis were recorded. To our knowledge, primary closure of war wounds to the head and neck (supported by antibiotic therapy) and reconstruction of extensive laryngotracheal injuries with the medial layer of the cervical deep fascia were used for the first time as war surgery procedures.