Incidence of Craniofacial Trauma Changes With the Seasons

Objective: Craniofacial fractures are commonly attributed to exposures that may vary with seasons. While it is commonly thought that summer months tend to have more craniofacial trauma, exact seasonality of such traumas across anatomic sites have not yet been elucidated. We aimed to characterize trends of craniofacial trauma across seasons. Study Design: Retrospective medical record review. Setting: Single-institution study at Level 1 trauma center. Methods: Patient and admission data for craniofacial trauma from June 2013 to June 2019 were systematically extracted by the hospital analyst team using International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10) diagnosis codes. For each ICD-10 diagnosis, anatomic sites affected by trauma were categorized. Trends across seasons and injury site were investigated using Student’s t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Across 925 admissions that met inclusion criteria, the volume of admissions did not significantly differ by season (ANOVA: P = .33). Frequency of admissions for jaw and maxilla fractures was significantly lower in the winter compared to summer (jaw: P = .024; maxilla: P = .018). Number of admissions involving zygoma fractures was lower in the winter compared to summer ( P = .044) and compared to fall ( P = .028). When examining number of fracture sites (eg, 1, 2, or ≥3) for each admission, there was a significantly greater number of admissions with ≥3 fracture sites during summer compared to winter ( P = .017) and fall compared to winter ( P = .011). Conclusion: Rates of craniofacial trauma admissions appear to follow seasonal trends, with significantly fewer craniofacial trauma presentations during winter when compared to summer, especially among non-occipital injuries. These findings, along with future efforts to elucidate seasonal trends nationally, may enable forecasting patterns of fractures to better guide resource allocation and inform prevention strategies.