Isolated traumatic orbital floor fracture: An analysis of the National Trauma Data Bank

Abstract

To date, no study provides a comprehensive analysis of traumatic orbital floor fractures across the United States. We aimed to characterize patient demographics, injury‐related variables, and operative management in this population.The National Trauma Data Bank was queried for open or closed orbital floor fractures from 2008 to 2016. Clinical data were extracted.Overall, 148,592 orbital floor fractures were identified, with 142,577 (95.9%) closed‐ and 6158 (4.1%) open‐type fractures. A total of 106,243 (71.5%) patients were male and the median patient age was 41 years. The majority of patients (79.2%) had abbreviated injury scale scores of ≤2, indicating minor/moderate injury. Fracture mechanism of injury (MOI) differed by gender, with the most frequent being unarmed fights in men (34.3%) and falls in women (14.0%). There were 29,600 patients (19.9%) with isolated orbital floor (I‐OF) fractures. The MOI most strongly associated with operative intervention of with I‐OF fractures were penetrating injuries caused by a firearm (odds ratio [OR]: 2.91; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.62–5.20) and cuttings/piercings (OR: 2.17; 95% CI: 1.29–3.65).This large epidemiological study reveals that orbital floor fractures tend to present with minor or moderate injuries and are more likely to require operative intervention in setting of firearm or cut/pierce injuries.