Maxillofacial injuries associated with traumatic brain injury: a systematic review

Abstract

The high rate of morbidity and mortality due to traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem, since the treatment and follow-up of the affected patients have a significant social and economic impact. The bone complexity of the face and maxillofacial injury (MFI) that may sometimes be associated with TBI necessitates the present review that systematically discusses the evidence available in the literature associated with the potential relationships between the TBI and theMFI and its implications diagnostic and therapeutic. The research based on the PRISMA guideline was carried out by two researchers (Alves, PJT, Machado, CA) in the PubMed and Scopus databases, which presented a total of 27 competent articles to the topic of the 149 researched ones. Of this selection, 13 are retrospective studies, 9 prospective studies and 5 are cohorts. The preliminary result is a flowchart based on the PRISMA protocol detailing the search and inclusion and exclusion of articles. It is important to train all the emergency room professionals for the recognition of TBI and adequate initial management of the patients. The use of several TBI classifications makes it difficult to associate with MFIs. Further studies are needed to highlight the relationship between TBI and MFI and to stress the importance of concomitant management of both lesions and multidisciplinary conduction in the hospital settingfor in a better prognosis.