Loss of consciousness in mandibular fractures an audit of 254 patients

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to seek association between mandibular fractures and loss of consciousness [LOG]. The present study is a retrospective chart review of 254 patients of fracture mandible at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa Province of Pakistan from July 2009 to July 2010. The demographic data, LOC, mechanism of injury, site of fracture and number of fractures per mandible were collected for each patient. The frequency of LOC due to mandibular fractures in this study was 25.9%. The male to female ratio was 4.61. The mean age of the patients was 20.3 SD [+14.68]. Age ranged from 2 years to 65 years in the group with LOC and from one year to 80 years in the group without LOC. The highest incidence of patients with LOC was found in 3[rd] decade of life [33.3%] while the highest incidence of patients in non LOCgroup was in 1[st] decade of life [33.5%]. The most common cause of mandible fracture in patients with LOC was RTA [57.6%] followed by fall [37.9%] while in nonLOC group was fall [46.8%] followed by RTA [41.5%]. The most common site fractured in both groups was mandibular para-symphysis, accounting for 37% in LOC group and 38.9% in non LOC group. In the LOC group, the predominant fracture pattern seen was non displaced fractures [51.5%], while in the non LOC group, displaced fractures were predominant [52.1%]. Loss of Consciousness was more common when, there was a single mandibular fracture [54.5%], while in the non LOC group [51.6%] sustained double fractures. This observation is statistically non-significant with p- value [.18]