BACKGROUND: The human face often constitutes the first point of contact in various human interactions and it is frequently the preferred target for blows in assault cases.
AIM: To analyze the pattern of assault-related maxillofacial injuries treated at the General Hospital, Lagos over a period of one year.
METHODOLOGY: This is one year prospective study of assault-related maxillofacial injuries treated at the Department of Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental Centre, General Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. A face-to-face interviewer-administered structured proforma was used to obtain information from study subjects.
RESULTS: Thirty-three patients with maxillofacial injuries met the inclusion criteria for this study. Their age ranged between 16 and 48 years with a mean age of 28.2 ± 7.4 years. There were 25(75.8%) males and 8(24.2%) females with a male/female ratio of 3:1. Majority of the patients, 24(72.7%) did not have any skilled employment while the remaining 9(27.3%) were road transport workers, specifically commercial bus drivers and motorcycle riders. The most frequently seen soft tissue injury was contusion which accounted for 17(51.5%) cases while 13 (39%) of the patients sustained mandibular fracture which was the most common hard tissue injury.
CONCLUSION: Assault-related maxillofacial injuries are most common amongst young adult males who are not skillfully employed; this can be attributed to the increased disposition to violence in males in our environment.