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Maxillofacial surgery quality indicator

Percentage of emergency admissions with fractured mandible who have surgery same day or the next day

How is the Trust doing?

The aim is for all eligible patients to be operated on the same or next day. Not all patients can be operated on the same day or the next day if they are medically unfit or if they have other injuries which take priority.

The Trust is monitoring performance against this indicator with a view to getting more patients to theatre the same or next day.

Why is this indicator important?

Fractured mandible (lower jaw) is one of the most common facial fractures usually caused by trauma (e.g. violence), road traffic accidents, contact sports, falls or through other causes. Early treatment is important to reduce the risk of infection, problems with healing and to alleviate pain.

Some mandible fractures may not need surgery if the fracture is not mobile and the patient’s bite (the way the teeth meet together) is unchanged. Mandibular fractures are either treated with bars on the teeth and elastic to guide the teeth back into the correct position or by opening them up and screwing a titanium plate across the fracture to stabilise it.

Patients are usually discharged from hospital the day after their treatment if the fractured mandible is their only injury.

How do we measure this indicator?

Percentage of emergency patients admitted with a primary diagnosis of fractured mandible who undergo a corrective procedure the same or next day.

224 of these patients were treated by the Trust’s Maxillofacial surgical team during 2009-10.