Nutritional status of substance abusers with mandible fractures.

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were 1) to assess the validity of patient self-report in identifying illegal substance abuse and 2) to identify nutritional deficiencies in substance abusers presenting for treatment of mandible fractures.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

To address the research purposes, a prospective cohort study was conducted of patients presenting for treatment of mandible fractures. A urine drug screen was used to determine the validity of patient self-report of substance abuse. For purposes of assessing nutritional status, 2 categories of substance abusers were identified: illegal and legal (alcohol). The nutritional status was measured using various laboratory markers.

RESULTS

The sample was composed of 93 subjects. Urine drug studies were available for 32 patients. Of the 22 patients who denied illegal drug use, 12 (55%) had a positive drug screen. Of the 10 patients reporting a positive history of illicit drug use, 7 (70%) had a positive urine drug screen (P = .47). A positive correlation was found between alcohol exposure and serum aspartate aminotransferase, mean corpuscular volume, and lactate dehydrogenase. Positive drug screens also were associated with increased serum ferritin levels.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that patient self-report of illicit drug use may be unreliable. The findings also suggest that legal and illegal substance abusers presenting for treatment of mandible fractures have minimal nutritional deficiencies.