Browsing by Subject "facial fracture"

ABSTRACT Purpose; The investigators hypothesized that the role of alcohol in facial fracture etiology and patients’ daily life may be underestimated. Methods; A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted. Alcohol consumption habits were evaluated according to brief intervention and the data was collected with a constructed questionnaire and interview. After review of the patient records, a case-related data collection was performed with the primary predictor variables being mechanism of injury; fracture type; associated injury (any). Outcome variables were alcohol involved in injury (yes/no) and heavy alcohol use (yes/no). The explanatory variables were gender and age. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were computed, and the P value was set at .05. Results; A total of 166 patients were included in the study. 55% of patients reported being under the influence of alcohol during the injury. Alcohol was involved most often in males (P = .0006) and younger age groups (P < .0001); however, it was present in 22% of the cases among the elderly as well. 17% of patients reported heavy alcohol use habits. The majority of the interpersonal violence events had taken place under the influence of alcohol (84%, P < .0001). Patients who were under the influence of alcohol during injury were more often heavy users (P < .0001). There was no correlation between alcohol involvement during injury and associated injuries or type of fracture. Conclusions; The role of alcohol among facial fracture etiology is considerably high. A brief intervention of alcohol should be included routinely in patient care to identify and, if necessary, address the patient's alcohol use in heavy drinkers and to obtain more evidence about the role of alcohol in facial fracture etiology.