Original Article EVALUATION OF MAXILLOFACIAL TRAUMATIC INJURIES OF FORENSIC MEDICAL

Objective: To review and compare the frequency and etiology of maxillofacial injuries in patients of forensic medical center of Ahwaz in 2006. Methodology: It is a retrospective review of patient’s records at Forensic Medical Center of Ahwaz, Iran, in 2006. Age, sex, etiology, type and location of injuries were analyzed. The percentage and means were calculated using Microsoft SPSS soft ware and Chi-square test. Results: In total 272 patients which included 220 male (80.9%) and 52 female (19.1%) with male to female ratio of 4.23:1 were screened. Most fractures were caused by violent assaults (61%), traffic accidents (30.1%) and accidents at work (8.8%) the majority of patients (118 and 43.3%) were in the age group of 21-30 years old. Conclusions: Our results show that the most common causative factor was assaults. The relatively high incidence of injuries resulting from assaults, indicated the necessity to reinforce legislation aimed to prevent assault and thus reduce maxillofacial injuries