Fractures of the facial skeleton in Reykjavik, Iceland, 1970-1979. (I) Mandibular fracture in 238 hospitalized patients, 1970-79.

Almost all facial fracture surgery in Iceland is performed in the hospitals in Reykjavik. Some information about the treatment of facial fractures at the City Hospital was published in the Icelandic Medical Journal in 1978. Apparently, no other research on facial fractures has been done here. This article, therefore, deals with 238 patients who sustained mandibular fracture in 1970-79. There was a marked increase in the incidence of fracture of the mandible during the research period, especially in 1974 and 1975. The total of fractures in women, 33%, was higher than in other countries. Assault was a major factor for both sexes. Especially interesting was the fact that beating and assault accounted for 46% of all mandibular fractures in women. Multiple fractures from beatings were commoner here in Iceland than in other countries. For the group as a whole, 52% of the patients had multiple fractures of the mandible. The incidence of fractures among those between 16 and 20 years of age was proportionately higher here than elsewhere due to car accidents and assault and battery. The types of fracture and area of occurrence in the mandible varied with the cause. Fractures of the corpus and angulus mandibulae were proportionately common, both because of the number of assault cases and also because the proportion of those who were edentulous, 19%, was higher than in other countries. Among the young, fracture of the processus condylaris was commonest, and up to age 30, when fracture of the corpus mandibulae was more likely. Fracture of the processus coronoideus never occurred alone. In all cases, it was accompanied by a fracture in another area of the mandible or zygomatic fracture, and this result is in accordance with the idea that the processus coronoideus almost never breaks alone, because of its location, its strength, and the attachment of the muscles.