Aim: To determine the epidemiological profile of Craniofacial Trauma (CFT) in adult patients attended at the Emergency Room of Hospital Barros Luco Trudeau (HBLT), Santiago, Chile.

Methods: This retrospective epidemiological study was undertaken by analysis of medical chart of all patients attended at Emergency Room of HBLT between January 2006 and March 2010. From a universe of 603,308 reports issued in this time span, the study sample consisted of 3,160 (0.53%) reports referring to CFT. Information regarding date of trauma, age, gender, etiology, alcohol/drug abuse, general concomitant lesions and classification of facial fractures were gathered and recorded in database of Acces Microsoft ^® 2007.

Results: Falls were the most common cause (53%) followed by interpersonal violence (31%). However, fall-related injuries are predominance in female aging population (70 years and more) while interpersonal violence was more frequent in the third decade of life (20–29) with a male to female ratio of 3.6:1. Soft tissue injuries were the most affected (63.6%), followed by the hard tissue lesion (36.4%) such as dentoalveolar trauma (75.9%) and fractures (24.1%) specially in the jaw bone. Alcohol use was the most common harmful habit analyzed (5.1%).

Conclusion: This study shows that CFT rates and patterns in the HBLT are similar to the developed countries. More nationwide studies are necessary for a better knowledge and understanding when considering preventive measures, clinical protocols, treatment guidelines as well as organization charts in Chilean emergency rooms.

Conflict of interest: None declared.