The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate contributing factors in patients requiring surgical retreatment of mandibular fractures. Of all the patients with mandibular fractures who were treated using internal fixation at a trauma hospital over a seven-year period, 20 patients (4.7%) required a second surgery and thus composed the "reoperated" group. The control group comprised 42 consecutive patients with mandibular fractures who were treated at the same clinic and who healed without complications. Medical charts were reviewed for gender, age, substance abuse history, dental condition, etiology, location of fracture, degree of fragmentation, fracture exposure, teeth in the fracture line, associated facial fractures, polytrauma, time elapsed between trauma and initial treatment, surgical approach and fixation system. Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0; descriptive statistics and the chi-squared test were used to determine differences between groups. Significant differences in substance abuse (p = 0.006), dental condition (p < 0.001), location of fracture (p = 0.010), degree of fragmentation (p = 0.003) and fracture exposure (p < 0.001) were found. With regard to age and time elapsed between trauma and initial treatment, older patients (31.4 years, SD = 11.1) and a delay in fracture repair (19.1 days, SD = 18.7) were more likely to be associated with reoperation. It was concluded that substance abuse, age, dental condition, location of fracture, degree of fragmentation, fracture exposure and the time between trauma and initial treatment should be considered contributing factors to the occurrence of complications that require surgical retreatment of mandibular fractures.

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the most common patient with a Le Fort fracture is an adult male, with a Le Fort II fracture due to a traffic accident requiring surgical fixation on zygomaticomaxillary suture.

Odontogenic infections usually respond well to outpatient care; however, these can be very complicated and demand hospitalization. The aim of this study was to assess retrospectively the characteristics and medical management of patients needing hospitalization for the treatment of odontogenic infections. The personal data, symptoms presented, and therapeutic procedures adopted were analyzed. The predominant age group was from 0 to 10 years (30%), and a sex relation of 1:1 was found, but there was no significant difference (P = 0.337). The most frequent diagnosis was of dentoalveolar abscess (86.3%). Pain (47.1%) was the prevailing reason for hospitalization, with pulpal necrosis (67.5%) as the main cause. There was a prevalence of involvement of the lower permanent teeth (41.4%) and lower deciduous teeth (23%). The prevalent clinical aspect was submandibular or facial swelling (61.4%). The most administered antibiotic was penicillin G associated with metronidazole (25.3%). Most cases (58.7%) presented regression with antibiotic therapy, and in some cases, surgical drainage was necessary (18.7%). One case of Ludwig angina resulted in death. The mean length of hospital stay was 4.4 days, being higher in the cases of Ludwig angina. It was concluded that most cases of odontogenic infections requiring hospitalization were of dentoalveolar abscess occurring in young people of both sexes, associated to the lower permanent molar teeth, presenting with swelling, with regression of the symptoms after antibiotic therapy and hospitalization for some days, with some of the cases requiring drainage.

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