Mortality due to traffic accidents and occurrence of maxillofacial fractures

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the mortality due to traffic accidents and the occurrence of maxillofacial fractures in the city of Campina Grande, PB, Brazil. In this cross-sectional study, medical reports of adult victims of traffic accidents collected from the Department of Forensic Medicine (Numol) in Campina Grande were reviewed. The sample consisted of 273 medical forensic reports of victims of traffic accidents in 2005. The following variables were analyzed: sex, age, day and time of accident, type of death cause, number of injuries, region of the injury (head and face), maxillofacial fracture, dental avulsion and fractured facial bones. In the studied population, traffic accident victims were young men driving motorcycles who presented multiple injuries. The head and face regions were often involved and maxillary bone fractures were frequent