title: Maxillofacial Trauma Following Road Accidents and Falls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) and falls are major causes of maxillofacial injuries posing real challenges for the medical staff.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the demographic and injury characteristics, as well as the treatment procedures of casualties diagnosed with maxillofacial injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The investigators implemented a multicenter retrospective study composed of hospitalized maxillofacial trauma patients recorded in the Israel Trauma Registry for 2000 to 2011. The predictor variable was mechanism of injury and the outcome variable was type of injury, severity, and hospital resources utilization. Descriptive and bivariate statistics with P values was set at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 11,592 reported hospitalized maxillofacial trauma patients (39.4% of them were MVA, 33.5% were falls), with a male predominance of a 3:1 ratio. The high-risk age groups were the first 3 decades of life in both etiologies, while age groups above 75 years were also frequent in falls. Severity of maxillofacial injuries, multiple injuries, admission to intensive care units, hospitalization for more than 15 days, inpatient mortality, and rehabilitation after discharge was significantly higher in MVA compared with falls. Conversely, maxillofacial surgeries were performed slightly more among patients injured in falls (34.1% and 31.1% respectively), as tongue and mouth are more prone targets in falls, compared with zygoma, maxilla, mandible, and teeth in MVA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study suggest that the etiologies present an entire separate pattern of trauma. A better understanding and proper identification of their high-risk groups should lead to appropriate prevention programs and treatment protocols.
authors.affiliation: *Orthodontic and Craniofacial Department, Graduate School of Dentistry, Rambam Health Care Campus †Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa ‡The Israeli National Center for Trauma and Emergency Medicine Research, The Gertner Institute for Health Policy and Epidemiology, Tel-Hashomer §Disaster Medicine Department, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Einy
authors.forename: Nura
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abdel Rahman
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siman-Tov
authors.forename: Dror
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aizenbud
authors.forename: Kobi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peleg
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008446:Maxillofacial Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009104:Multiple Trauma; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult