ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

European Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 2021 April;5(1):16-22

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-3466.20.00229-5

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Management of maxillofacial injuries among child and adolescent victims during Yemeni civil conflict: experience from a tertiary referral center in Najran, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

John S. DANIELS ¹, Ibrahim ALBAKRY ¹, Ramat O. BRAIMAH ² ✉, Mohammed I. SAMARA ³, Rabea A. ALBALASI ¹, Farzana BEGUM ¹

¹ Unit of Surgery, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, King Khalid Hospital, Najran, Saudi Arabia; ² Unit of Surgery, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Specialty Regional Dental Center, Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ³ Surgery Section, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Sharourah General Hospital, Sharourah, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Children in the military are youngsters (<20 years) who are associated with military organizations. The aim of the study was to evaluate the epidemiology and maxillofacial injuries among such group during the Yemeni conflict.
METHODS: This was a cohort study among child/adolescent Yemeni victims with maxillofacial injuries, transported across the border from Yemen into Najran, from 2015 to 2019. Information such as demographics, etiology of injury (gunshot or bomb blast), head and neck injury zones (zones I, II, III and combination), entry and exit of bullet/shrapnel and treatment modality were recorded. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for windows Version 25 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY, USA).
RESULTS: A total of 479 patients was seen with 72 victims being a child/adolescent, giving a prevalence of 15.0%. Out of the 72 victims, 71 (98.6%) were males while only 1 (1.4%) was female with M:F ratio of 71:1. Age ranged between 6 -19 years with mean±SD (17.3±2.7) years. The age-group between 15-19 years constitute the highest victim group (87.5%). There were 37 (51.4%) gunshot and 35 (48.6%) bomb blast victims. The mandible was the most affected bone (38.9%). Most commonly associated injuries were ruptured globe (14 [19.4%]) and ear injury (9 [12.5%]). Early exploration (36.1%) and ORIF (27.7%) were our main treatment modalities.
CONCLUSIONS: A prevalence of 15.0% child and adolescent war victims with maxillofacial injuries in the Yemen civil conflict was observed. Most of them were combatants and aged between 6-19 years. Main treatment includes exploration (36.1%) and ORIF (27.7%).

KEY WORDS: Adolescent; Armed conflicts; Child; Maxillofacial injuries