ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Diagnosis of nasal bone fracture is important because of not only deformity of the external nose but also because of other additional injuries around the nose. The purpose of this study is to explore the incidence, type, location and direction of nasal septal fracture in nasal bone fracture patients who were diagnosed by nasal bone CT. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We analysed the medical records and films of 135 nasal bone fracture patients who were diagnosed by computerized tomography from January 2005 to September 2005. The nasal bone fracture was classified by six types on nasal bone CT: unilateral, bilateral, open book, impacted, greenstick, comminuted. The external deviation of nasal bone (20 degree below or up) and correlation between septal fracture and nasal bone fracture were analysed by chi-square test (p<0.05). RESULTS: The incidence of each type of nasal bone fracture is unilateral (41%), bilateral (18%), open book (8%), impacted (6%), green stick (17%), and comminuted (10%). The incidence of combined septal fracture was high in comminuted and impacted rather than in unilateral and bilateral (p<0.05). And there was no correlation between the directions of the trauma force and nasal septal deviation. CONCLUSION: The incidence of concurrent nasal septal fracture when nasal bone fracture occur is relatively high, so we must consider nasal septum more carefully on nasal trauma.