Clinical Patterns Of Oro-facial Infections

Abstract

This study is conducted to evaluate the clinical patterns of oro-facial bacterial infections and their management at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. MATERIALS AND METHOD All patients with oro-facial infections who attended the Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya from January 1984 to December 1998 were included in this retrospective study. The list of patients were taken from record of patients attendance. The patients' case notes were retrieved and reviewed using specially designed proforma. The data on patients' demography, clinical presentation, source and site of infection and treatment were collected. Patients with inadequate information and unavailable case notes were excluded from this study. RESULTS A total of 409 patients were included in this study. There were 258 (63.1%) males and 151 (36.9%) females. The male to female ratio was 1.7:1. The incidence of oro-facial infections was highest in the 20-29 year age-group. This age group accounted for about 33% of the total cases. This was followed by the 30-39 year age group, which accounted for 20.1% of total cases (Table 1). The age of patients with oro-facial infections ranged from less than one year to 90 years. ABSTRACT The aim of this retrospective study was to study the clinical patterns of oro-facial infections presented and their management (or trends of management) at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental Faculty, University of Malaya. These included the predisposing factors, presentations and management. This study reviewed the oro-facial infection cases over 15 years. The data was obtained from case note reviews of patients using specially designed proforma. A total number of 409 samples were included in this study. Majority of the patients were generally healthy with about 6.6% having diabetes mellitus. The common presentations were pain (47.4%), pus discharges (16.9%) and limitation of mouth opening (12.5%). The major site was in the submandibular region (18.9%) followed by cheek (13.2%). Most of the infections were from odontogenic source (63.2%). Other sources includes cysts (15.4%) and tumours (6.7%). Incision and drainage were the treatment of choice performed on 57.55% of patients. Monoantimicrobial therapy was the treatment instituted in 20.8% of cases.