[Characterization of oral maxillofacial lesions resulting from physical aggression: differences between genders]

Interpersonal Violence and Maxillofacial Injuries: Toward an Active Surveillance Proposal Through the Presentation Profile in Hospital Emergency Services

To establish a set of variables that define a predictive profile of events of maxillofacial trauma resulting from interpersonal violence, we analyzed sociodemographic variables and clinical characteristics of injuries recorded in three tertiary care hospital centers in Chile. To assess the relation between categories, we applied a multiple correspondence analysis. We identified 567 cases. Two dimensions explained 53.4% of the model. The first dimension was composed of variables related to the severity of the injury: medical-legal prognosis (.574), type of trauma (.511), and the destination of the patient (.332); the second dimension was composed of variables related to the typology of interpersonal violence: type of violence (.398) and sex of the patient (.370). Two profiles were recognized: women, victims of domestic violence, with lesions affecting mainly soft tissues and not requiring hospitalization and men, victims of community violence, with lesions involving fractures associated with greater severity and requiring hospitalization. There are two key dimensions in the diagnosis of maxillofacial trauma resulting from interpersonal violence: severity of the injury and typology of the interpersonal violence. Exploring these predictive profiles can be a useful complement to the current screening tools of violence in clinical practice.

Factors Associated With Violence Against Women and Facial Trauma of a Representative Sample of the Brazilian Population: Results of a Retrospective Study

Study Design

Violence against women is a challenge in public health. It involves women of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, cultures, and religions.

Objective

The objective of this study was to perform an epidemiological survey of facial trauma among women who experienced physical aggression by an intimate partner.

Methods

Electronic medical records from a public tertiary referral hospital for trauma in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo were analyzed between 2013 and 2018.

Results

Patients were most commonly between 20 and 29 years of age (33.9%), and 50% of the patients were of mixed race. When separated by days of the week, facial trauma was most commonly inflicted on Sundays (24.2%) and on Saturdays (22.6%). Of the 62 women included in the study, 47 had facial fractures, and 7 had more than 1 concomitant fracture. Forty of the total fractures (72.7%) were on the middle and upper thirds of the face, while 15 fractures (27.3%) were on the lower third of the face. The most commonly observed signs and symptoms of these injuries were edema (56.5%), periorbital ecchymosis (35.5%), deviated nasal dorsum (22.6%), and hematoma (16.1%).

Conclusions

Facial trauma may be considered an important marker of attempted femicide. Health care professionals must be aware of and attentive to this correlation, since many cases of attempted femicide go unnoticed or are attributed to another etiology.