Facial domestic violence injuries differ

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Women who are victims of intimate partner violence tend to have different patterns of facial injury than women with other facial trauma, U.S. researchers say.

Intimate partner violence -- abuse by a spouse or significant other -- affects approximately 25 percent to 33 percent of women in the United States and between 88 percent and 94 percent of intimate partner violence victims seek medical attention for injuries to the head and neck, and 56 percent of those have facial fractures, researchers say.

Dr. Oneida A. Arosarena of the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and colleagues reviewed the medical and dental records of 326 women -- average age 35 years -- treated for facial trauma at a university medical center from 1998 to 2004.

Of the 45 patients, who were assault victims, 18 were documented victims of intimate partner violence, while 24 of the remaining 26 assault victims could not or did not identify their assailant.

The study, published in the January/February issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, finds that overall, assault was associated with jaw fractures, complicated breaks in the cheekbones, cracks or breaks in bones surrounding the eye and brain injury compared to facial injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes, falls, or unknown or undocumented causes.