AB129. SOH24AB_231. Evaluation of patients presenting with maxillofacial injuries to a level 1 trauma centre

Background: The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH) is the designated Major Trauma Centre (MTC) for Ireland’s Central Trauma Network. In November 2022, a maxillofacial surgery service was established to support the MTC. This study will assess the epidemiology and aetiology of maxillofacial fractures either as isolated injuries or as a component of polytrauma.

Methods: The maxillofacial surgery service maintains a prospective database of all trauma patients presenting with facial fractures. Patients were analysed, over a 12-month period between November 2022 and November 2023, for age, sex, mechanism of injury, maxillofacial fractures sustained, treatment outcome, associated traumatic brain injury (TBI), and surgical intervention.

Results: One hundred and twenty-six patients presented with facial fractures. Patients were predominantly male (n=103). Interpersonal violence was the most common mechanism of injury at 46% (n=58). The most common facial fracture was an orbital fracture (n=37), followed by a zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture (n=33). Surgical intervention was required for 34% (n=43) of patients. A concurrent TBI was identified in 23% (n=29) patients and 9% (n=12) required treatment from another surgical specialty.

Conclusions: Maxillofacial trauma in patients presenting to a MTC in the first 12 months of a new surgical service as it is established are presented. Over one third of the maxillofacial patients required operative intervention. A concurrent TBI and/or other surgical specialty intervention is required in up to one third of patients.

Keywords: Database; facial fractures; maxillofacial; surgery; trauma