Craniofacial trauma in older adults victims of road traffic accidents: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aim: To characterize and evaluate the occurrence of craniofacial trauma caused by road traffic accidents in older adults attended at a reference center. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and retrospective study comprising 117 medical records of individuals aged 60 years or more hospitalized due to road traffic accidents. Data regarding gender, age group, day of week and time of occurrence, type of roadtraffic accident, soft tissue injury, multiple lesions, head and face injury, occurrence of fracture and type of bone involved, occurrence of cranial-encephalic trauma and death were collected during the period January-December 2011. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square test), with asignificance level set at 5%. Results: Victims were mostly males (74.4%), aged 60-69 years (61.5%). The majority of accidents occurred during weekdays (68.4%), at night (38.5%) and involved pedestrians (45.3%). There was a statistically significant association between gender and road traffic accident (p = 0.004). Soft tissue lesions accounted for 76.9% of victims and 39.3% had multiple lesions. The incidence of head and face injuries was 17.9% for each region. Fractures in the skull affected 6% of victims, while fractures in the maxilla represented 4.3% of cases. The occurrence of death was 9.4%. The bivariate analysis showed a statistically significant association between presence of trauma in the face and the occurrence of cranial-encephalictrauma (p = 0.034). Conclusion: Road traffic accidents affect male pedestrians in the age range of 60-69 years, at night and cause multiple lesions. Victims present injuries in the regions of head and face, with high occurrence of bone fracture. Statistically significant association was observed between presence of trauma inthe face and occurrence of traumatic brain injury.