The patterns of facial fractures in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients using ordinal regression: a retrospective study of five years

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), traumatic brain injury (TBI) will mainly contribute to disability and death by 2020. Facial fractures associated with TBI are a significant public health concern worldwide. The main etiological factors are road traffic accidents, violence, and falls. Neurological injury associated with facial fractures has been reported to be as high as 76%. Therefore, we retrospectively evaluated facial fracture patterns in patients with a traumatic brain injury in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia and evaluated their associations in our study. Ordinal regression was used to examine the facial fracture patterns in patients with traumatic brain injuries. The confounding variables were controlled using ordinal regression analysis, and probabilities of p < 0.1 were considered significant associations. The results found that zygomatic arch fracture −1.141 (95% CI, −2.487 to 0.204, p-value = 0.096), Le Fort II fracture −1.080 (95% CI, −2.138 to −0.022, p-value = 0.045), maxillary bone fracture 2.924 (95% CI, 1.784 to 4.063, p-value .001), nasal bone fracture 4.047 (95% CI, 1.243 to 6.851, p-value = 0.005), and mandibular bone fracture 1.501 (95% CI, 0.711 to 2.291, p-value .001) were the most common facial fracture types associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study provides valuable data for creating prevention plans and gives a chance to discover the epidemiology, prevalence, and connection between TBI and facial fracture.

Keywords

• traumatic brain injury
• facial fractures
• ordinal regression analysis