Jose L Treviño-Gonzalez¹*, Guillermo E Ortega-Fanjon¹, Karla M Santos-Santillana¹, German A Soto-Galindo¹, Yehuda J Garcia- Gutierrez² and Natalia Villarreal-del Bosque²

¹Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Division, School of Medicine and University Hospital “Dr. Jose E. González”, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
²Radiology Division, School of Medicine and University Hospital “Dr. Jose E. González”, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

*Corresponding Author: Jose L Treviño-Gonzalez, Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Division, School of Medicine and University Hospital “Dr. Jose E. González”, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Received: January 14, 2022; Published: February 28, 2022

What we know?

Objective:Temporal bone fractures secondary to head trauma is a frequent cause of otorhinolaryngological consult with a reported incidence of 14-22%. The external pressure inflicted on the temporal bone produces a fracture line that commonly follows anatomically vulnerable paths such as suture lines and air cells damaging vital structures harbored within the temporal bone. Multiple studies have demonstrated a protective function of other pneumatized cranial spaces; however, the role of mastoid air cells as a shock observer with protective qualities has lacking evidence. This study aims to correlate the previous findings and determine if temporal bone pneumatization is associated with the severity of temporal bone fractures.

Patients and Methods:We conducted a retrospective study of randomly selected consecutive patients admitted to the University Hospital “Dr Jose E. Gonzalez” from March 2020 to March 2021.

Results:A total of 96 HCT were evaluated. The patients mean age was 36.1 ± 16.1. A total of 91.4% (n = 85) patients were male. The most common type of pneumatization pattern of the temporal bone was type 3 (32.7%, n = 34). Mastoid and tympanic tegmen were involved in 26.9% of cases (n = 28). Fracture extension through the mastoid and tympani tegmen was observed in 46.7% and 26.7% of patients with type 1 pneumatization, respectively. A statistical difference was observed in tegmen tympani involvement between pneumatization groups (p = 0.0467).

Conclusion:In our study, an extensive pneumatization of the temporal bone was associated with a decreased fracture involvement of mastoid and tympani tegmen.

Keywords:Temporal Bone; Skull Fractures; Anatomic Variation; Traumatic Brain Injury; Ear

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Citation

Citation: Jose L Treviño-Gonzalez., et al. “Mastoid Pneumatization and its Influence in Temporal Bone Fractures in Head Trauma Patients". ActaActa Scientific Otolaryngology 4.3 (2022): 42-48.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Jose L Treviño-Gonzalez., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.