Etiology & Injury characteristics in maxillofacial trauma: Maxillofacial trauma patients reported to Government Dental College & Research Institute, Bangalore, India

This was a retrospective study carried out to determine the incidence, etiology, injury characteristics of maxillofacial injuries reported at our centre. The data for this study were obtained from the medical records of 689 cases reported to our centre during the period from 2006-2009. Records of patients who were either treated in the emergency room as outpatients or in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery as inpatients were analyzed and were subjected to statistical analysis using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 17.0. Data was summarized in form of proportions and frequency tables for categorical variables and was subjected to Chi-Square test. Out of 689 patients, 75.9% were male and 24.1% were female. 42.5% of the patients were in the age group of 21 to 30 years. Road traffic accidents accounted for the majority (74.3%) of cases of maxillofacial trauma. Mandible was seen as the most commonly fractured bone (50.3%) and 53.8% head and neck injuries were most common among the associated injuries. Road traffic accidents were clearly the most prevalent etiological factor for maxillofacial trauma.