BO Akinbami and SE Udeabor
Background: Majority of maxillofacial injuries in Port Harcourt, Nigeria is caused by road traffic accidents (57.1%), assaults (17.6%), gunshots (14.3%) and falls (9.9%). However, many reports on maxillofacial trauma have not focused specifically on assault and from our study, some of the injuries were severe based on tissue involved, tissue loss and bone involvement, the purpose of this study was to document our experience in the pattern and management of maxillofacial injuries due to assault from non projectiles in our center.
Method: Patients’ demographics, site and type of injury, tissue involved as well as presence of associated injuries. The objects that were used to inflict the injuries were documented. Soft tissue injuries were classified as either contusions alone or contusions with laceration, avulsions or degloving injuries. The investigations and treatment done, and outcome of treatment were also documented. The treatment outcome was based on esthetic appearance of the scars and patients satisfaction.
Result: Of the 31 patients, 21 had detailed information for analysis, 14(66.7%) were males and females were 7(33.3%,8(38.1%) had both soft and hard tissue injuries while 13(61.9) cases had only soft tissue injuries. Age range was between 14 years and 55 years with mean (SD) of 27.9(9.1) years. There was associated head injury in 2(9.5%) cases. Domestic violence between spouses and family members accounted for 4(19%) cases, child battering for 1(4.8%) case and the others were due conflict between neighbors or friends.
Conclusion: Intervention strategies should be targeted at the youths and adult without gainful employment in order to minimize aggression and violence
PDFShare this article
Journal of Trauma & Treatment received 1048 citations as per Google Scholar report
