Intraoperative Fluoroscopy Reduces Complication and Reoperation Rate in Facial Fractures.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate surgical outcomes of facial fractures after the introduction of intraoperative radiology.

Methods

An historic cohort of patients without intraoperative fluoroscopy (IOF) was compared with a prospective cohort of patients with IOF. Main outcomes were postoperative complications and reoperation rate.

Results

There were 51 in the non-IOF group and 49 in the IOF group. In the group with IOF 10 patients required intraoperative revisions (20.46%). Overall postoperative complication rate was higher in the non-IOF group (25.49% vs. 6.12%) due to the significantly higher bone-related complication rate (15.69% vs. 2.04%). Reoperation rate was also higher in the non-IOF group (11.76% vs. 0%).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that IOF reduces bone-related complication and reoperation rate by allowing correction of surgical errors immediately during surgery.