Condylar fracture – a review

Abstract

Condylar and choronoid fractures constitutes 26-40%of all mandibular fracture. Condyle is the major growth centre of mandible.This article acts a small summarization of the views and thoughts of various surgeons and anatomists over the ages and tries to condense the vastly available information into a meaningful format applicable to current genre of maxillofacial surgeons.

Fractures of the condyle and joint represent 20-30% of all mandibular fractures,

and are thus among the commonest facial fractures¹. The pattern of the fracture can be extremely variable and may occur anywhere down a line from the sigmoid notch to the mandibular angle. Condylar neck fractures are clearly different from other mandibular frac­tures in as much as they are always located behind and above the lingula. They also differ from mandibular body fractures because they are more difficult to diagnose, both clinically and radiologically. Different treatment methods must also be employed; this is due on the one hand to the anatomically more difficult access to the joint and on the other to the fact that the articular region is a growth region, thus requiring a different approach to fractures that occur during childhood.