A CLINICAL STUDY OF FRACTURE OF THE ZYGOMATIC BONE

ABSTRACT

This retrospective study comprised of 141 patients with zygoma fracture caused by various types of accidents and treated in the department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Pusan National University Hospital during past 10 years from April, 1986 to March, 1996. The medical records of these 141 patients were reviewed and analysed retrospectively in order to obtain the annual variation of clinical pattern of zygomatic bone fracture and to help understand change of therapeutic tendency during 10 years in our hospital. The statistical items were the age, sex, distribution of cause, fracture sites, diagnostic method, the accompanied facial bone injury, intervals between onset of accident and time of operation, and the approach methods with fixation materials. The following results were obtained. 1. Mean age of patients was 33.6 years, and age range was 3 to 75 years. Most injuries occurred in young male with the highest incidence in the third decade of life. Male predominated more than female in the ratio of 41. Annual variation was not observed. 2. Traffic accident(47.5%) was the most common cause of injuries and incidence has been increased since 1993. Relative incidence of assault has been increased since 1994. Otherwise, incidence of industrial accident has been decreased since 1993. 3. The most common anatomical site of the zygomatic bone fracture was group III type fracture(44%) in Knight and North Classification. According to Larsen and Thomsen classification, type B(predicted unstable fracture 68.1%) was the most common. Annual variation was not observed. 4. Associated facial bone fractures were mainly maxillary fracture followed by nasal, panfacial and blow-out(in odder of frequency). And head injury was the most common non-maxiilofacial bone injury accompanying zygomatic bone fracture. Annual variation was not observed. 5. The most prevalent time interval between onset and surgical intervention was within seven days and the most prevalent time interval between surgical intervention and discharge was within 2-3 weeks. 6. Open reduction was used for 75.1% of total cases. The most common reduction approach incision of the zygomatic bone fracture was bicoronal approach in conjunction with subciliary incision that had been mainly used since 1991 and the most common fixation material used was microplate and screw that had been used since 1989.