Introduction: For surgical treatment for condylar fractures is required an extraoral approach that will depend on the type of fracture and knowing the risk involving the facial nerve. From the different approaches, there is still no consensus on the most appropriate one and will depend also on the surgeon’s experience.

Objectives: Evaluate the association between type of approach with condylar fracture pattern, their functional and esthetic results.

Methodology: Clinical records of patients since January 1999 to December 2012 admitted with condylar fractures were review. We made a database with sociodemographic characteristics, type of approach and fracture pattern, clinical and imaging controls.

Results: Of the 123 patients with condylar fractures, 48 were treated surgically 68% men. The most prevalent fracture pattern class IV Spiessl and Schroll. The preauricular approach (48%), was used despite of the type of fracture, followed by endaural (25%) and retromandibular approches. Temporal facial palsy was present in 5% of preauricular approaches.

Conclusions: In our clinical experience, the versatility of the preauricular approach suites well to resolve most of the different types of condylar fractures with minimum complications.

Key words: condyle fractures; surgical treatment; preauricular; endaural; approach