Citation

Barbosa KG, Lucas-Neto A, Gama BD, Lima-Neto JC, Lucas RS, d'Ávila S. J. Forensic Leg. Med. 2014; 26C: 15-18.

Affiliation

Department of Dentistry, State University of Paraiba, Campina Grande, Brazil. Electronic address: davila2407@hotmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jflm.2014.03.008

PMID

25066167

Abstract

Facial injuries frequently occur in traffic accidents involving motorcycles. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of facial injuries among motorcycle drivers who perform motorcycle taxi service. The study design was cross-sectional. A total of 210 participants who served as motorcycle taxi drivers in a city in northeastern Brazil completed a survey concerning their experience of accidents involving facial injuries and consequent hospitalization and absenteeism from work. The motorcycle drivers included in the study were randomly selected from a list provided by the city. Out of the respondents, 165 (78.6%) who were involved in traffic accidents in the last 12 months, 15 (9.1%) reported facial injuries. The types of facial injury most frequently reported involved soft tissues (n = 8; 53.3%), followed by simple fracture (n = 4; 26.7%) and dentoalveolar fracture (n = 3; 20%). We found an association between facial injuries and absenteeism, as well as an association between the presence of facial injury and the need for hospitalization for a period of 2 days or more. Respondents reported that they had accidents, but due to the use of full face motorcycle helmet the number of facial injuries was low. For most of them, absenteeism was observed for a period of one month or more.

Language: en