Comparison of characteristics and injury patterns between minor and adult patients seeking emergency cosmetic suture for facial lacerations: data from a tertiary plastic surgery hospital in Beijing, China.

BACKGROUND

Emergency cosmetic suture is frequently required by patients with soft tissue injuries. Understanding the epidemiology and injury features of different age groups in this population facilitates wound management and prevention. Based on large patient volume from a tertiary plastic surgery hospital in Beijing, our study aimed to compare the characteristics and injury patterns between minor and adult patients seeking emergency cosmetic suture for facial lacerations.

METHODS

This is a retrospective study on patients undergoing emergency cosmetic suture in Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC from August 2022 to July 2024. Data including demographics, time metrics, wound number and size, cause and position of injury, injection of tetanus immunoglobulin were collected.

RESULTS

Totally 18,412 patients were included, comprising 12,613 (68.5%) minors and 5,799 (31.5%) adults. Median age was 7 (IQR 4-25) years. Male percentages were 61.7% in minors vs. 49.5% in adults. Clinical workload was heavier from March to October, on weekends and during 20:00-23:00 of a day. Injury to door time, consultation to operation time and operation time were longer in adults. Adults also tended to have multiple, longer lacerations and lacerations related to traffic or assault. Common positions of injury were frontal region (33.1%), mental region (22.2%), periorbital region (21.1%) in minors and periorbital region (25.6%), frontal region (24.4%), perioral region (16.3%) in adults. Injection of tetanus immunoglobulin was more frequent in adults.

CONCLUSION

Characteristics and injury patterns of minor and adult patients were different in many aspects. The findings may contribute to preventing injuries among targeted age groups, assessing wound condition and optimizing working shift allocation.