Etiology of injuries due to assault in the head and neck region: Socioeconomic factors and biological pattern

Abstract

Background: The emergency department of any given tertiary hospital setting provides an opportunity to deal with the outcomes of violence. The head and neck region is the most affected, especially in assault cases. Materials and Methods: A retrospective medical forensic auditing of a non-confidential cumulative record of assault cases from December 1, 2001 to December 1 st 2002 was carried out at the Nigerian Police Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria. Result: There was a total of 1051 victims of which females were 52% and males 48% respectively. Almost 90% of the victims were of low socio-economic background. The most affected age-range was 21-30 years and the most commonly used assault weapon was a blunt object 23.5% head and neck region was affected 56.9% of the time. Conclusion: We concluded that this study might sensitize the general practitioners, the oral surgeons, and the maxillofacial surgeons in collaborative management and research on head and neck assault.

Keywords

• Etiology
• injury
• assault