ELECTRICAL BURNS TO THE ORAL COMMISSURE - DOES SPLINTING OBVIATE THE NEED FOR COMMISSUROPLASTY

Two groups of children who had sustained electrical burns to the oral commissure were compared. The first group (n = 20) underwent splinting of the commissure and the other group (n = 22) did not have splints a s part of their treatment regimen. The mean age at the time of burn wa s 3 years in both groups. The need for commissuroplasty was significan tly decreased in the splinted group (P = 0.0007 by Fisher's exact test ). Further analysis of the duration of splinting in the splinted group (n = 20) revealed that all seven children who required commissuroplas ty underwent splinting for less than 4 months while all 13 children wh o did not require surgery used their splints for more than 4 months (r ange 4-8 months). Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISBI.