Spectrum of primary bone grafting in cranio maxillofacial trauma at a tertiary care centre in India

Assessment of clinical outcome of surgically managed panfacial fractures with or without ancillary procedures. A 10-year retrospective study

Purpose

The aim of this retrospective study is to analyze the demographic factors, different patterns, complications, and clinical outcomes based on various ancillary surgical procedures performed during the management of panfacial fractures.

Materials and methods

Patients diagnosed with panfacial fractures, who underwent surgical management from 2011 to 2020 were included. The predictor variable was five ancillary surgical procedures, orbital reconstruction with autogenous bone graft, primary nasal bone grafting, open reduction and internal fixation or custom-made palatal splint for palatal fractures, ORIF for zygomatic arch fractures, and reattachment of Medical Canthal Ligament. The outcome variable was post-operative complications. Age, sex, etiology of trauma and pattern of panfacial fractures were the co-variates for the study. The incidence of complications with or without performing ancillary surgical procedures was analyzed.

Results

A total of 1028 patients were treated for various maxillofacial trauma from 2011 to 2020.103 patients were diagnosed with panfacial fractures. 27 of 103 patients were excluded, 76 patients were included in the study with strict adherence to the inclusion criteria. Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS software version 23.0. Chi-Square test was performed to analyze the incidence of complication and fracture pattern. The results were statistically significant for three procedures which included orbital reconstruction, primary nasal bone grafting, and ORIF for palatal fractures with p-value, 0.032, 0.022, and 0.012 respectively.

Conclusion

The results suggested that performing ancillary procedures in the management of panfacial fractures significantly reduces the incidence of postoperative complications and improves the clinical outcome.

The role of plastic and reconstructive surgeon in trauma care: Perspectives from a Level 1 trauma centre in India

Background

As the morbidity and mortality due to trauma are ever increasing, there is proportionally growing need of trauma care facilities across the country. In the context of expanding designated trauma care facilities, the role of plastic and reconstructive surgeon needs to be analysed and defined at least at a Level 1 trauma centre.

Materials and Methods

We included the patients who were operated under the department of plastic, reconstructive & burns surgery at a Level 1 urban trauma centre between January 2016 and December 2017. We analysed the demographic data and categorised operative data according to anatomical areas and interacting specialties.

Results

A total of 1539 procedures were performed under the division of plastic reconstructive and burn surgery. Amongst them, 81% were male, and 19% were female. Mean age was 27.3 years (range: 3-90 years). The anatomical locations treated were upper limb (49%), lower limb (35%), head and neck (8%) and trunk (8%). Interdepartmental cases were 600 and majority of them were in collaboration with orthopaedics (n = 298), general surgery (n = 163), neurosurgery (79) and maxillofacial surgery (60).

Conclusion

There is a significant role of plastic surgeon at a Level 1 trauma centre in India. The plastic surgeon's interventions are limb saving and sometimes lifesaving, many at times morbidity of post-traumatic sequelae are either prevented or treated. Along with other core specialties involved in the management of trauma, plastic surgeons play an integral role in a Level 1 trauma centre. The policymakers should take note to augment the number of plastic surgeons at a Level 1 apex trauma centre on par with other specialties, as the workload is heavy and is steadily on an increasing trend.

The Strategy of Delayed Reconstruction of the Mandible in War Injuries

The most common causes of mandibular defects are ablative surgery of benign or malignant tumors, severe trauma, inflammatory diseases, and osteoradionecrosis. War injuries are another cause for mandibular defect. Reconstruction of the mandible is considered a challenge to the maxillofacial surgeon due to the accompanying functional and cosmetic importance. The object of this article was to show the role of nonvascularized bone graft in the reconstruction of segmental defect of the mandible resulted from projectiles and its snags. Seventeen patients underwent reconstruction of defect in the body of the mandible using non-vascularized iliac bone graft,in sixteen patients the grafts were fixed by reconstruction plate and in one by stainless-steel wire. In the emergency phase in which life-saving measures were done, in the immediate phase, treatments of associated facial and systemic injuries were carried out. The delayed phase includes the reconstruction of the residual defects and rehabilitation. A total of 17 male patients with a mean age of 34.5 years underwent reconstructive surgery, the time lapse between the injury and the delayed phase of treatment ranged from 20 days to 3 months. The size of the defects ranged from 4 to 7 cm. Treatment was considered successful in 15 patients (88.2%) in whom the grafts were incorporated to mandible with improvement of facial contour and symmetry and satisfactory occlusion of the remaining teeth. Nonvascularized bone graft is considered a feasible option for the reconstruction of a relatively small mandibular defect, especially in ascetic conditions for its role in improving facial appearance and to less extent functional benefit and more advanced method for the reconstruction needed to be introduced especially in war injuries.

Comparison of rabbit rib defect regeneration with and without graft

Rib segment, as one of the most widely used autologous boneresources for bone repair, is commonly isolated with an empty left in the defect. Although defective rib repair is thought to be unnecessary traditionally, it's of vital importance actually to promote rib regeneration for patients with better postoperative recovery and higher life quality. Comparative investigations on rabbit rib bone regeneration with and without graft were reported in this article. A segmental defect was performed on the 8th rib of 4-month-old male New Zealand rabbits. The mineralized collagen bone graft (MC) was implanted into the defect and evaluated for up to 12 weeks. The rib bone repair was investigated by using X-ray at 4, 8 and 12 weeks and histological examinations at 12 weeks after surgery, which showed a higher bone remodeling activity in the groups with MC implantation in comparison with blank control group, especially at the early stage of remodeling.

Determining the critical size of a rabbit rib segmental bone defect model

In order to establish and standardize the rabbit rib segmental bone defect model, it is of vital importance to determine rabbit rib critical size defect (CSD). According to the general time needed for spontaneous long-bone regeneration, three-month observation period was set to determine the CSD. The rabbit rib segmental bone defects with different sizes from 1 to 5 cm with or without periosteum were performed in the eighth rib of 4-month-old male New Zealand rabbits and underwent X-ray examinations at the 4th, 8th and 12th weeks postoperatively. The gross and histological examinations at postoperative week 12 were evaluated, which showed that the critical sizes in the rabbit rib models with and without periosteum were 5 and 2 cm, respectively. This study provides prerequisite data for establishing rabbit rib CSD model and evaluating bone materials using this model.