Medical & Clinical Research Med Clin Res, 2018 Comparative Study between IMF and Pure Conservation in Management of Condylar Head Fracture in Children Research Article Majed Alharbi 1 and Hamada Mahran 2* 1 Resident of oral and maxillofacial surgery, ministry of health, Saudia Arabia 2 Lecturer of maxillofacial and plastic surgery, general surgery department, faculty of medicine, Assiut university, Egypt * Corresponding author Dr. Hamada Mahran, Lecturer of maxillofacial & Plastic Surgery faculty of medicine, Assiut University, Egypt, E-mail: dr.h.mahran@ gmail.com Submitted: 05 Mar 2018; Accepted: 29 Mar 2018; Published: 12 Apr 2018 Volume 3 | Issue 2 | 1 of 6 Introduction The mandible, or the lower jaw bone, is one of the twenty-two bones that make up the skull and the only one of those bones that is not fused to its neighbors. It is the strongest and most massive bone in the face. The mandible plays a vital role in many common tasks, including chewing, speech and facial expression [1-3]. Given its prominent anatomic location, mandibular bone fractures (57%) is the tenth most common fracture in the human body and second most of the facial bones next only to nasal bones [4-7]. Mandibular fractures occur most commonly among males in their 30s [4,5]. Among the mandibular bone fractures, condylar region is the most frequent site ranges from 20% to 35% of all cases [8-12]. The condyle represents a structural weak point in the mandibular skeleton because of its shape and the slenderness of its neck and sometimes its being fractured avoids more serious consequences such as fractures of the base of the skull which can traumatically interrupt propulsive strength [9,10]. Condylar fractures are usually resulted from a direct blow to the chin or to the lateral side of the jaw caused by Road traffc accidents, violence, accidental falls and sporting injuries [13-19]. Mandibular condylar fractures are classifed according to the anatomic location into intracapsular and extracapsular and degree of dislocation of the articular head [20-25]. Concerning the management of mandibular condyle fracture, there are different methods of condylar fractures treatment with a great deal of discussion and controversy due to differences in outcome results of various retrospective and prospective studies [26-35]. For each type of condylar fractures, the treatment procedures must be chosen taking into consideration the presence of teeth, level of the fracture height, patients adaptation, patients masticatory system, disturbance of occlusal function, deviation of the mandible, internal derangements of the TMJ and ankylosis of the joint [36-40]. There are two principal therapeutic approaches to condylar fractures: Open reduction or surgical treatment and closed reduction or non Abstract Background: The purpose of the present study was to compare IMF and pure conservation in management of condylar head fracture in children treated at the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Egypt, between 2011G - 2016G. Methods: Twenty four patients with condylar head fractures were included in this study, 14 males and 10 females ranging in ages from 5 – 15 years. They were divided into two equal groups. In group 1, twelve patients were treated by closed reduction for 2-3 weeks followed by physiotherapy, while group 2 patients were managed by pure conservation only for the same period. Outcome results on clinical and radiological parameters were evaluated during the follow up period. Results: In group 1, the maximum mouth opening after 2 months was ranged from 28-36 mm (average 32mm),while signs of development of ankylosis were reported in 3 patients. In group 2, the maximum interincisal opening was ranged from 28-37 mm (average 32.5mm) with absence of ankylosis. Pain in TMJ was noted in 3 cases of bilateral condylar head fractures of this group, but subsided gradually on the follow up. Conclusions: This study concluded that treatment of patients by closed reduction give satisfactory clinical results, though the condyle is not anatomically normal in radiographs. Whereas management of patients by pure conservation only without any surgical intervention showed excellent results clinically as well as radiographically. Perhaps a study conducted on larger number of patients with longer post operative follow up will throw more light on this subject.