Kinesiologic Tape on Post Operative Swelling, Pain, Trismus in Zygomatico-Maxillary Complex Fracture after Orif: A Changing Tactics

There has been always a need of new methods to control post operative complications in OMFS. A randomized prospective study was done to assess the effect of K tape on postoperative swelling, pain, trismus in Zygomatico-maxillary Complex (ZMC) fracture after open reduction with internal fixation using two point fixation. 30 patients of either gender undergoing ORIF for ZMC fracture using two point fixation of age group between 18 and 50 years were included in the study. Patients were divided into treatment either with or without Kinesiologic tape. Tape was applied directly after surgery and maintained for at least 5 days postoperatively. Facial swelling was quantified using a five-line measurement at six specific points of time. Pain and degree of mouth opening was measured. Patient’s subjective feeling was asked. The values were subjected to Fischer’s exact test, Independent sample test, Mann whitney U test, Wilocoxon sign rank test. The results of this study show that application of Kinesiologic tape after zygomatico maxillary complex fracture surgery significantly reduced the incidence of swelling with an earlier resolution of swelling, and decreased the maximum turgidity for more than 60% during the first 2 days after surgery. Although, Kinesiologic tape has no significant influence on pain control but reduction in trismus in the Kinesiologic tape group compared to the non-Kinesiologic tape group. Furthermore, patients with Kinesiologic tape felt significantly lower morbidity than those without Kinesiologic tape. This study suggests that Kinesiologic tape is a promising, simple, less traumatic, economical approach, which is free from adverse reaction and improves patients quality of life.