OBJECTIVE: To evaluate epidemiological aspects of maxillofacial injuries in hospitalized patients. METHODS: The sample was composed of 405 patients treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Emergency Hospital of Aparecida de Goiânia, Brazil, between 2011 and 2013. The following informations were collected from the patients' medical records: gender, age, cause of injury, seasonal distribution and type of injury. The statistical treatment analyzed data from frequency distribution and chi-squared test. The level of significance was set at 5% for all analyses. RESULTS: A higher occurrence of maxillofacial injuries was observed in males (72.59%) and with 21-30 years old (26.17%). The main etiologic factors involved were vehicle traffic accidents (30.62%), falls (22.72%) and violence (21.48%). The seasonal distribution showed that most cases occurred in autumn (38.02%), followed by summer (34.07%). The most common injuries were facial fractures (80%), with the nasal bones being the most affected anatomical region (39.75%). Statistically significant associations between etiological factor, gender and age (p<0.005) were observed. CONCLUSION: There was a high number of maxillofacial injuries in males aged less than 30 years old due to vehicle traffic accidents.