The epidemiological characteristics of zygomatic complex fractures: A comparison between the surgically and non-surgically treated patients

INTRODUCTION: This retrospective study is aimed at the documentation of a more complete view of epidemiological data with particular focus on the characteristics of the surgically and non-surgically treated patients with zygomatic complex fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 133 surgically and 150 non-surgically patients were treated with zygomatic complex fractures in VU University medical center Amsterdam from January 2007 to January 2012 were analyzed. These patient groups were further subdivided into displaced or non-displaced fractures and compared with each other according to age, gender and trauma etiology. RESULTS: The mean age of all 286 patients was 42.8 years (standard deviation [SD: ±19.8]). Surgically and non-surgically treated patients differed in presentation with a significantly overall higher age of females, especially within the non-surgically treated patient group with displaced fractures (mean age of 59.5 years, SD: ±27.4). The mean ages of males from the different subgroups were more consistent with the overall mean age. The main causes were traffic accidents, whereas the contribution of falls and assaults depended on age group, gender, treatment management and even fracture displacement. CONCLUSIONS: This report provides us important epidemiological data of all patients with zygomatic complex fractures. The non-surgically treated patient group contained patients of higher age, more females and a fall-related cause, compared to the surgically treated patient group. The surgically treated patient group showed the same epidemiological characteristics as were demonstrated in previous studies.