Evaluation of factors influencing accuracy of virtual surgical planning in orthognatic surgery.

ABSTRACT

Three-dimensional virtual surgical planning has become routine practice in orthognatic and reconstructive surgery for the possibility to realize presurgical evaluation of intraoperative bones movements, the prediction of postoperative results and the high level of accuracy. Thanks to surface superimposition between 3D planned and 3D postoperative model of maxillo-facial skeleton, a medium discrepancy less than 1 mm was found in scientific literature, considering 15 different points of maxillofacial skeleton. In our study we decided to evaluate different factors that could invalidate that result in the same cohort of patients, such as sex, kind of dentofacial deformity, asymmetry, type of surgical approach and entity of maxillo-mandibular movements (more or less than 1 mm). We found out no significant differences among groups. We can state that virtual surgical planning and 3D surgical splints are a valid means of diagnosis, treatment and predictivity regardless factors that could influence post-operative results. In conclusion, virtual surgical planning and 3D surgical splints facilitated diagnosis, treatment planning and accuracy regardless of sex, dentofacial deformity class, surgery techniques, entity of advancement and asymmetry.