Retrospective Clinical Study of Maxillary Sagittal Fractures: Predictors of Postoperative outcome

Abstract Purpose Because of less attention to sagittal component of maxillary fractures, they are often misdiagnosed and miss the reduction leading to maxillary transverse discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with good or adverse postoperative outcomes of maxillary sagittal fractures. Methods This study was a single-center retrospective cohort study. The sample was composed of cases of maxillary sagittal fractures collected from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Craniomaxillofacial Trauma Unit of Xian Jiaotong University between January 2008 and December 2013. The predictor variables were age, gender, and occupation, the cause of injury, injury severity, treatment timing, treatment method, and quality of fracture reduction. The outcome variable was postoperative treatment effect index. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate statistics were computed. P value was set at 0.05. Results The sample was composed of 40 cases. Male to female ratio was found to be 4:1; the most vulnerable age group was 20-30 years (30%); laborers (72.5%) were more prone to injury, and the main cause of injury was motor vehicle accident (62.5%). No cases of isolated sagittal fracture were found and most (35%)occurred with other maxillary fractures including Le Fort fractures. There was a statistically significant association between treatment timing and fracture reduction quality to postoperative treatment effect index (P value