ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Injury Prevention and Control
Comparison of Characteristics and Injury Patterns between Minor and Adult Patients Seeking Emergency Cosmetic Suture for Facial Lacerations: Data from a Tertiary Plastic Surgery Hospital in Beijing, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Plastic Surgery, Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC, Beijing, China
- 2Outpatient and Emergency Operating Room, Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC, Beijing, China
- 3Information Technology Department, Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC, Beijing, China
- 4Central Operating Room, Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC, Beijing, China
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Background: Emergency cosmetic suture is frequently required by patients with soft tissue injuries. Understanding the epidemiology and injury features of different age groups in this population facilitates wound management and prevention. Based on large patient volume from a tertiary plastic surgery hospital in Beijing, our study aimed to compare the characteristics and injury patterns between minor and adult patients seeking emergency cosmetic suture for facial lacerations. Methods: This is a retrospective study on patients undergoing emergency cosmetic suture in Plastic Surgery Hospital, CAMS & PUMC from August 2022 to July 2024. Data including demographics, time metrics, wound number and size, cause and position of injury, injection of tetanus immunoglobulin were collected. Results: Totally 18412 patients were included, comprising of 12613 (68.5%) minors and 5799 (31.5%) adults. Median age was 7 (IQR 4-25) years. Male percentages were 61.7% in minors vs. 49.5% in adults. Clinical workload was heavier from March to October, on weekends and during 20:00-23:00 of a day. Injury to door time, consultation to operation time and operation time were longer in adults. They also tend to have multiple, longer lacerations and wounds related to traffic or assault. Common positions of injury were frontal region (33.1%), mental region (22.2%), periorbital region (21.1%) in minors and periorbital region (25.6%), frontal region (24.4%), perioral region (16.3%) in adults. Injection of tetanus immunoglobulin was more frequent in adults. Conclusion: Characteristics and injury patterns of minor and adult patients were different in many aspects. The findings may contribute to preventing injuries to targeted age groups, assessing wound condition and optimizing working shift allocation.
Keywords: emergency, cosmetic suture, Facial lacerations, Characteristics, injury patterns, Minors, adults
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Mao, Wu, Shi and Nian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chao Nian, 15910631764@163.com
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