Does Dexamethasone Facilitate Neurosensory Function Regeneration After Zygomatic Fracture? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: This study sought to clarify the rate of neurosensory disturbance (NSD) after zygomatic complex fractures in general, as well as the effect of perioperatively administered dexamethasone on neurosensory recovery.

Patients And Methods: This was a single-blinded randomized study aiming to clarify the benefits of perioperative dexamethasone after surgery. The patients were randomly assigned either to receive dexamethasone (up to a total dose of 10 or 30 mg) or to act as control patients (no glucocorticoid treatment). The outcome variable was NSD, the presence of which was established when patients had any sensory disturbance of the infraorbital nerve. Other predictor variables included in the analysis were age, gender, time span from accident to surgery, surgical approach to the fracture line, and relation of the fracture to the infraorbital foramen. The statistical significance of associations was evaluated with χ tests.

Results: We included 64 patients in the analyses. Of the patients in the dexamethasone group (either 10 or 30 mg), 58.3% had NSD at 6 months postoperatively, whereas in the control group, 66.7% of the patients had NSD. This finding was not statistically significant (P = .565). At the 1-month interval, the patients without a fracture through the infraorbital foramen had less NSD (P = .009); this finding was not significant at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. Age, gender, injury mechanism, surgical approach, and time span from accident to surgery were not significant predictors of NSD. In total, 64.4% of the patients still had NSD at 6 months postoperatively.

Conclusions: This study showed no benefits of short-term, high-dose dexamethasone administration in the neurosensory recovery of patients with zygomatic complex fractures. The type of primary trauma is the main cause of NSD, but the precise predictors remain unknown.