Missile war injuries of the face.

In a society struggling to rebuild its country after 3 decades of years of dictatorships and wars, Iraqi maxillofacial and craniofacial surgeons play a critical role in treatment of many most serious terrorist missile injuries of the face by ongoing conflict in Iraq. This study reflects our surgical techniques of treating explosive missile injuries and other combat- and terrorism-related injuries and also evaluates the immediate and secondary phase managements of patients with missile injuries. This study includes 235 patients with missile war injuries of the face during a period of 4 years; all injured patients were treated in the Maxillofacial Unit of Surgical Specialties Hospital, Medical City, Baghdad. There were 195 men and 40 women; their ages ranged from 1 to 70 years (mean, 39.5 years). Posttraumatic missile facial deformities were classified as follows: 95 patients (40.43%) had bone loss; 72 patients (30.64%) had soft tissue loss; 33 patients (14.05%) had orbital injuries; and 35 patients (14.90%) had other deformities of scar contracture, fistula, and sinus formation. Two techniques were used for reconstruction of the bony defect, either by bone chips carried by osteomesh tray harvested from the iliac crest or by free block of corticocancellous bone graft from the iliac crest. Soft tissue reconstruction was done by local flaps and regional flaps such as lateral cervical and cervicofacial flaps, and the orbit was reconstructed by bone graft, lyophilized dura, and sialastic implant. Scar contracture was treated by scar revision and sinus tract excised at the same time of scar revision. In conclusion, the primary phase required an urgent airway management, controlling an active bleeding by surgical intervention; most entrance and exit wounds as well as retained missiles were located in the cheek, chin, and mandibular body, with few cases of mortality due to complications related to head injuries. The secondary phase management of deformities of the face as a complication of missile injuries was classified as bone loss, soft tissue loss, combined bone and soft tissue loss, and others (sinus tracts and poor scars).