Management of jaw fractures in oral surgery in public and private practice: a retrospective study from 2006 to 2017

Abstract

Introduction: To date, no epidemiological studies on jaw fracture have examined its characteristics according to hospital status (public vs private). The aim of this study was to examine their differences in terms of patient- and injury-related variables. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted using patients' medical records in 2 types of hospital located in the northern area of Brittany (France). All patients hospitalized for jaw fracture between 2006 and 2017 were eligible. Comparisons between centres according to age, gender, anatomic location of fracture, mechanism of injury, and length of stay were undertaken using χ2, Fisher exact test, t-test, and Cochrane-Armitage trend test. Results: A total of 142 patients were included: 45.1% in the public and 54.9% in the private hospitals. Of them, 84.5% were men and the mean age was 32.0. Main causes of fractures were assault (56.3%), fall (30.3%) and road traffic accident (10%). A small number of patients had polytrauma (4.2%). The mean duration of stay was less than 2 days. Compared to patients who were admitted in private hospital, those who were likely to be admitted in public hospital were those: who had a jaw fracture in context of road traffic accident (18.8% vs 2.6%), with polytrauma (9.4% vs 0.0%) and maxilla fracture (9.4% vs 1.3%), and who had a longer stay (2.2 vs 1.1 days). Conclusion: This study showed that differences observed in characteristics of jaw fractures between public and private hospitals may be due to recruitment process: more severely affected patients are likely to be admitted in the public hospital.