Causes and management of nasal bone fractures in patients attended al-Thawra Teaching Hospital, Yemen

Abstract EN

Objective: To describe the distribution of nasal bone fractures among patients attended Al-Thawra Teaching Hospital in Sana'a, Yemen.

Patients and Methods: A total of 306 patients with nasal bone fractures attended the General Emergency Room or ENT outpatient clinic in Al-Thawra Teaching Hospital during the period from January 2005 to December 2006.

Patients were examined clinically and investigated by X-ray, CT-scan and nasal endoscopy when appropriate.

Results: Nasal bone fractures accounted for 52.6% of all facial fractures.

A proportion of 40% of patients with nasal bone fractures were aged between 16-30 years.

Males were 230 (75.2%) and females were 76 (24.8%).

Fights 114 (37.2%), road accidents 79 (25.6%) and falls 49 (16.0%) were the most common causes of nasal bone fractures.

External swelling 202 (66.0%), nasal obstruction 125 (40.8%) and epistaxis 112 (36.6%) were the common presenting symptoms.

Closed reduction 184 (74%) was the common surgical intervention.

Most of the reductions 130 (72.3%) were done under local anesthesia.

The majority of the reductions 187 (75.1%) were done within 3-7 days after injury.

Conclusions: The highest incidence of nasal bone fractures was found among young adults between 16- 30 years old.

The most common causes were fights, road accidents and falls.

The common signs and symptoms were external swelling, nasal obstruction and epistaxis.

Closed reduction was the most common intervention.

The majority of reductions were done under local anesthesia.

Considerable proportion of patients were unsatisfied by the reduction.