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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1532133

Exploring the Correlation of Epidemiological and Clinical Factors with Facial Injury Severity Scores (FISS) in Maxillofacial Trauma: A Comprehensive Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Weronika Michalik Weronika Michalik 1Julia Toppich Julia Toppich 1Adam Łuksza Adam Łuksza 1Jakub Bargiel Jakub Bargiel 2Krzysztof Gąsiorowski Krzysztof Gąsiorowski 2Tomasz Marecik Tomasz Marecik 2Paweł Szczurowski Paweł Szczurowski 2Grażyna Wyszyńska-Pawelec Grażyna Wyszyńska-Pawelec 2Michał Gontarz Michał Gontarz 2*
  • 1 Jagillonian University Medical College, Students’ Scientific Group of the Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Cracow, Poland
  • 2 Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, Cracow, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Facial Injury Severity Scale (FISS) provides a numerical value based on individual fractures that can be a valuable tool for management of maxillofacial trauma patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of epidemiological and clinical factors with facial fracture patterns and their correlations with FISS. A retrospective study was conducted based on 511 medical records from a 4-year period of patients with facial trauma who underwent open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) under general anesthesia. Fracture patterns were categorized into 3 anatomic subunits: upper, middle and lower face. Singleunit and panfacial fractures groups were analyzed separately. Data regarding demographics, hospitalization, etiology of injury, fracture site and complications were collected. The overall risk of fracture within the viscerocranium requiring an ORIF was presented in graphical form. Single-unit fractures were more typical in younger patients. There was a significant association between FISS score and traumatic etiology, hospitalization time, length of surgery in each group (p<0.001). For panfacial fractures, FISS>6 indicated prolonged surgery (>2h) and hospitalization (>1 week). Despite the questionable clinical utility of FISS, classifying maxillofacial trauma can facilitate comprehensive treatment planning and multidisciplinary collaboration, particularly in complex cases such as panfacial fractures.

    Keywords: Facial Injury Severity Scale, Panfacial fractures, maxillofacial trauma management, Epidemiology, Panfacial fracture (PF)

    Received: 21 Nov 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Michalik, Toppich, Łuksza, Bargiel, Gąsiorowski, Marecik, Szczurowski, Wyszyńska-Pawelec and Gontarz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Michał Gontarz, Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, Cracow, Poland

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