Frequency of Blindness Due to Zygomatic Fracture in Hazrat Fatemeh Hospital

Nour-Ahmad Latifi¹, Hamid Karimi^1*, Fezzeh Elyasinia²

¹Department of Plastic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
²Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/ss.2014.512083                

Abstract

Background: Zygomatic fracture is one of the most prevalent one among facial fractures caused by vehicle accident, motorcycle accident, fighting, fall and sport injuries. Materials & Methods: This study was a retrospective study of our patients during past 6 years. Results: We had 1277 facial fractures, of whom 9 patients had blindness. We had 193 patients with Zygomatic fracture. 98 patients had pure zygomatic fracture and other had complicated fractures. Frequency of blindness due to zygomatic fracture in a period of six years was 4.7% in all and in pure zygomatic fractures was 2.04%. Blindness was most prevalent in age group 20 - 29 years old (55.6%). The most prevalent cause of zygomatic fracture which causes blindness, was motor vehicle accident (77.8%). Blindness was more common in males (77.8%) than females (22.2%). Discussion and Conclusions: One of the most disastrous complication of zygomatic fracture is transection of optic nerve. Very careful examination of fractured bones careful examination of optic nerve and visual acuity and urgent operation and decompression of optic nerve must be performed. About 4% - 5% will have blindness purely due to fracture.

Keywords

Zygoma, Zygomatic Fracture, Blindness, Orbit, Optic Nerve

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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