Vol.96 No.11 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 96 No.11 November 2003
Clinical Statistics on Nasal Injury
Yoshimi Miyajima and Tadashi Nakashima
(Kurume University School of Medicine)
Hiroyuki Fukunaga
(Kurume University School of Medicine, Aso Iizuka Hospital)
More than 100 patients visit Aso Iizuka Hospital every year with injury to the nose. During a period of 3 years between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2000, 266 patients visited the E.N.T. clinic of the hospital suffering from nose injuries. In this study we analyzed the age distribution of the patients, the season and the cause of injury, complications, symptoms and time delay before visiting the clinic after injury. In each patient, nasal fracture was detected by the Water's view, Okamoto's view and lateral soft roentgenograms.
There were patients with nasal injury in all age groups but there was a marked predominance in the age group from 10 to 19. The nasal injuries occurred most frequently in June and December. The causes of the trauma were accidents at home, traffic accidents, assaults, sports and others. Most of the patient visited the emergency room of the hospital on the same day they were injured. Complicated bone fractures with nasal injury were 21 orbital floors, 8 zygomas and maxillas, 4 skulls, 2 mandibles and 7 others. The most common symptoms accompanying nasal injury were deformity, nasal pain and epistaxis, and roentgenograms revealed nasal fracture in 127 of 266 patients. Injury occurred most frequently in the early summer and at the end of the year, possibly because of the influence of sports and drinking. Many of the patients visited the emergency room, because the injuries frequently occurred in the evening. As treatment, early reduction of the nasal fracture brought satisfactory results without open surgery.
Key words : nasal injury, nasal fracture, clinical statistics