Maxillofacial emergency's care during the COVID-19 pandemic, Granma 2021

ABSTRACT

Introduction: during the COVID-19 pandemic, new safety measures were implemented in all sectors. However, the Maxillofacial Surgery specialty kept on, where emergency patients were not left unattended. Background: to characterize the maxillofacial emergencies attended at the Hospital Clinico Quirurgico Docente "Celia Sanchez Manduley" in Manzanillo, during the COVID-19 related epidemiological situation. Methods: an observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was applied on 358 patients in the period between September 2020 and April 2021. The variables studied were as follow age groups, sex, month when patients were attended, maxillofacial emergency's motive, therapeutic behavior and patients with COVID-19 related symptoms. Results: the most affected age group was 60 (22.6%), with predominance in male sex (54.2%). Most patients were attended in November and December (20.3%), the predominated maxillofacial emergencies were those associated to maxillofacial trauma (31.8%), followed by facial cellulitis (23.7%). In terms of treatment, the highest percentage of conservative treatment was associated with the medicamentation (88.3%), while wound suturing practice predominated in surgical treatment (18.2%). The symptom with the highest incidence was fever (3.4%). The 61.5% of the maxillofacial surgeons were infected with COVID-19. Conclusions: maxillofacial emergencies are more frequent in males;maxillofacial trauma and facial cellulitis predominate. The maxillofacial surgery service is vulnerable to the coronavirus infection.