Epidemiologic survey of facial bone fractures at hospital ão Vicente de Paulo, Passo Fundo, RS

Abstract

Epidemic studies in Buco- maxillofacial Traumatology re- lated to professional hospitalar exercise in this area guided the accomplishment of a comparative study with the purpose of sho- wing the epidemic profile of facial traumatology in the area of Passo Fundo-RS. The present paper had for objective to evaluate the num- ber of attendances of traumas of the facial bones in patients taken to Hospital São Vicente de Paulo (HSVP), considered a referential health in Rio Grande do Sul state, especially for the northeast area of this state. The study tried to register all the patients who were assisted by the Service of Surgery and Bucomaxillofacial Traumato- logy at the hospital, during the period from December 1, 1998 to November 30, 2000, being the in- formation classified according to: age, gender, origin, etiology of the traumatism and the localization of the traumatic lesion. From the 265 assisted patients, 407 fractures were registered, being automobile accident the main etiologic factor, and the most affected area was the one pertaining to zigomatic bone. Male patients between the third and fourth etary age were the most affected. The data obtained with this study allowed, besides reinforcing the importance of the specialty, to alert for the main etiologic agents of facial bone frac- tures, in order to guide preventive works wich may be used in future preventive measures, especially in traffic education. Key words: facial fractures, epi- demiology, traumatology.