Clinical and radiographic predictors of the need for facial CT in pediatric blunt trauma: a multi-institutional study.

Background: Facial injuries are common in children with blunt trauma. Most are soft tissue lacerations and dental injuries readily apparent on clinical examination. Fractures requiring operative intervention are rare. Guidelines for utilization of maxillofacial CT in children are lacking. We hypothesized that head CT is a useful screening tool to identify children requiring dedicated facial CT. Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective review of children aged 18 years and under with blunt facial injury who underwent both CT of the face and head from 2014 through 2018 at five pediatric trauma centers. Penetrating injuries and animal bites were excluded. Imaging and physical examination findings as well as interventions for facial fracture were reviewed. Clinically significant fractures were those requiring an intervention during hospital stay or within 30 days of injury. Results: 322 children with facial fractures were identified. Head CT was able to identify a facial fracture in 89% (287 of 322) of children with facial fractures seen on dedicated facial CT. Minimally displaced nasal fractures, mandibular fractures, and dental injuries were the most common facial fractures not identified on head CT. Only 2% of the cohort (7 of 322) had facial injuries missed on head CT and required an intervention. All seven had mandibular or alveolar plate injuries with findings on physical examination suggestive of injury. Discussion: In pediatric blunt trauma, head CT is an excellent screening tool for facial fracture. In the absence of clinical evidence of a mandibular or dental injury, a normal head CT will usually exclude a clinically significant facial fracture. Level of evidence: III.

Efficacy of Staged Oronasal Fistula Reconstruction and Improved Bone Graft Survival in Cleft Patients Undergoing Secondary Reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of the senior author's technique of staged reconstruction in patients with recalcitrant oronasal fistulas. DESIGN: A retrospective review of the Pediatric Plastic Surgery Cleft & Craniofacial Surgery Database of cases from September 2013 to December 2018 was conducted. PATIENTS: A total of 31 patients who had previously undergone >1 surgical attempt to repair a fistula or patients who have failed >1 attempt at bone graft were included in this study. All patients were referrals from outside facilities. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes examined included fistula recurrence, infection rates, ability to proceed with second stage bone grafting after first stage fistula takedown and reconstruction, and bone graft loss. RESULTS: Charts of 1053 patients were reviewed and 31 (2.94%) cases met inclusion criteria for this study. Nineteen (61.3%) of these patients proceeded with the second stage of reconstruction and 100% did not experience any graft loss. Seven patients who completed the first stage are undergoing orthodontic optimization prior to bone grafting. The remaining 5 are adult patients not interested in pursuing bone grafting. All 31 patients with recurrent and recalcitrant fistulas had successful fistula reconstruction with our approach, despite multiple previous failed reconstructions. CONCLUSIONS: The 2-staged reconstructive approach described herein effectively resulted in resolution of prior recurrent recalcitrant fistulas and resulted in eventual bone grafting. By employing this technique, we report successful fistula repair and bone grafting in patients who had previously undergone multiple surgical reconstructions.

Ketorolac for Patients Undergoing Implant-Based Breast Reconstruction: Impact on Hospital Length of Stay and Postoperative Narcotic Use.

BACKGROUND: Opioid drugs have been a mainstay medication for the management of postoperative pain for several decades; however, in recent years there has been a push towards investigating alternative treatment options. Although ketorolac has been widely used by other medical and surgical specialties for analgesia, its utilization in plastic surgery has been widely debated. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of ketorolac as an adjunct in postoperative pain management. METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective review of patients who underwent implant-based breast reconstruction after mastectomy between January 2012 and December 2016. Other risk factors, such as chronic anticoagulation, aspirin, or coagulopathies, were documented as well. RESULTS: There were 198 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The results demonstrated that patients who received ketorolac utilized significantly fewer narcotics than patients who did not: 80 mg vs 108.8 mg (P = 0.002), respectively. The results showed that patients who received ketorolac had a decreased length of hospitalization: 1.9 days vs 2.1 days (P = 0.04), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Generous narcotic prescribing has received greater scrutiny in recent years. Aside from the risk of increased narcotic availability in the community, the side effects of nausea, puritis, and constipation delay patient recovery. These data show that patients who received ketorolac have a decreased length of hospital stay and lower narcotic use, suggesting ketorolac may be a safe and cost-effective adjustment to a multi-modal pain control regimen postoperatively.

Toradol following Breast Surgery: Is There an Increased Risk of Hematoma?

BACKGROUND: Ketorolac tromethamine (Toradol), a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug, is used with increased frequency given its success in postoperative pain control and the subsequent decreased need for narcotics. Its use has been limited in plastic surgery for fear of postoperative bleeding and hematoma formation. In this study of breast surgery patients, the authors investigated whether ketorolac increased the risk of postoperative hematoma formation. METHODS: After obtaining institutional review board approval, the authors retrospectively reviewed the records of patients undergoing breast surgery from January of 2012 through December of 2014. The authors compared the incidence of postoperative hematomas in patients who did, versus those who did not, receive ketorolac postoperatively. RESULTS: For the entire cohort, the overall hematoma rate was 2.8 percent. Of the patients who received ketorolac, the rate was 3.5 percent; of those who did not, the rate was 2.5 percent. Of the breast reduction patients, the rate was 4 percent in those who received ketorolac versus 3.2 percent in those who did not. Of the breast reconstruction patients, the rate was 4 percent in those who received ketorolac versus 3.2 percent in those who did not. CONCLUSIONS: Recently, the high rates of prescribing postoperative narcotics have received increased attention. Aside from the risk of increased availability of narcotics in the community, the side effects can delay patient recovery. Ketorolac is controversial for postoperative pain control because of the potential risk of bleeding, but in the authors' 3-year retrospective study, it was not associated with an increased risk of hematoma formation. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, III.

Excision of sublingual gland as treatment for ranulas in pediatric patients.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case study is to demonstrate that post-operative complication rates of sublingual gland excision for treatment of ranulas are equal to or less than alternative methods with a lower recurrence rate than other surgical methods. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of pediatric patients from 2004 to 2015 at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. Sixteen ranulas and 6 plunging ranulas were treated via sublingual gland excision during this time frame. Data examined included age, gender, scans of the lesion, location and size of lesion, surgical procedures, complications, and recurrence. RESULTS: There were 22 patients who met criteria. Only one patient had recurrence of the lesion (4.5%). One patient reported lateral tongue numbness post-operatively, and one patient had a hypoglossal nerve injury, with tongue deviation upon exam. Both of these complications were temporary and resolved within months of the procedure. CONCLUSION: Although sublingual gland excision is a definitive treatment for ranulas, many surgeons still utilize other methods such as marsupialization, drainage of the cyst, or excision of ranula alone as the primary method of treatment due to concerns about complications. This retrospective study demonstrates that excision of the sublingual gland is both a safe and effective method of treatment for ranulas.