Facial fractures in sport.

ABSTRACT

Injury from sport is an important area in medicine today. Facial injuries in sport have, until received little publicity in Thailand. The purpose of this paper is to focus on facial fractures in sport. A descriptive analysis is made of facial fracture injuries, using facial fracture records in Siriraj Hospital between 1991 and 1995. It was found that only 47 cases (2.0%) resulted from sporting activities. Eighty-nine percent were men. The peak incidence occurred at ages between 11 and 20 years. The most common types of sport associated with facial injuries were soccer (61.7%), followed by rugby (6.4%), basketball (4.3%), water-skiing (4.3%) and ratten ball (4.3%). A total of 34 cases (72.3%) were recorded with nasal fracture, plus eight cases (17.0%) of zygomatic fracture, three cases (6.4%) of maxillary fracture and two cases (4.3%) of mandibular fracture. Included in this series, were two cases of severe fracture, one caused by water-skiing and the other by soccer.