Facial Injuries Due to Criminal Violence: A Retrospective Study of Hospital Attenders

The material comprised 222 assault victims whose injuries required attention at the Departments of Oral Surgery and Ear, Nose, and Throat diseases, the Central Hospital in Falun or corresponding departments at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm or the University Hospital in Huddinge. Information was obtained from patient records.

One hundred and thirty-eight patients had fractures and the remainder had flesh-wounds, haematomas or swellings. The most frequent fracture site was the nasal bone followed by the jaws.

Forty-one per cent of the patients in Falun and 28 per cent in Stockholm reported the assaults to the police: in Falun the proportion of women victims who reported the assault was significantly higher than those who did not. The willingness to notify the police of the violence was not influenced by the use of drugs or the seriousness of the injuries.

The study showed that violence in suburban Stockholm was aggravated: one-third of the patients in the study required hospitalization compared to a quarter in a rural area.