Abstract

DIAZ FERNANDEZ, José Manuel  and  JARDON CABALLERO, José. Oral-cervicofacial injury profile due to violence against woman. MEDISAN [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.1, pp.33-42. ISSN 1029-3019.

Introduction: Violence against woman is a worldwide health problem. Objective: To determine levels of injury severity according to trauma qualifiers in maxillofacial surgery. Methods: An observational and descriptive study in 576 victims of oral-cervicofacial injuries attended at the Emergency Service of Maxillofacial Surgery from ¨Saturnino Lora Torres¨ Provincial Clinical-surgical Hospital in Santiago de Cuba was carried out from September, 2007 to December, 2008, in which case two international qualifiers of trauma severity were applied. The chi-square test was used for independent samples, with a significance level of p<0.05. Results: Two levels of injury severity were found, such as moderate and mild, both in single and multiple injuries (in the first ones, beats using the fist were relevant, while in the second ones, beats using blunt instruments were predominant). Both categories were of high prevalence in the middle third region. Mean scores of individual injuries in both soft and hard tissue were of 1.13 and of 1.45, respectively. Concerning multiple injuries, mean scores were of 8.14 in the lower third and of 7.25 in more than one of the anatomical region injured. Conclusions: Mean scores were low in orofacial injuries, in both individual and multiples. In contrast, the qualifiers used, allowed to assess them with more accuracy, independently from the injury mechanism that caused them.

Keywords : woman abuse; domestic violence; orofacial injury; injury severity; qualifiers of facial trauma.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )