Oronasal Fistula Closure and Defect Reconstruction: Two Case Reports Using Periodontal Plastic Surgery Principles.

OBJECTIVES: Oronasal fistulas are common sequelae following cleft lip and palate surgery and can significantly impact a patient's quality of life. They result from various factors, including surgical techniques, tissue management, and patient-specific factors. This case report explores the modern approach to oronasal fistula closure using periodontal plastic surgery principles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The report presents two cases of patients with oronasal fistulas due to previous maxillofacial surgical intervention. These patients underwent microsurgical procedures that involved partial flap thickness preparation of the fistula areas, the use of connective tissue grafts from the palate, and meticulous suturing techniques to ensure graft integrity. The procedures were performed in stages, and postoperative care was provided. RESULTS: Both cases demonstrated successful fistula closure and graft survival. The patients reported improvements in breathing, speech, aesthetics, and quality of life. The second case also included guided bone regeneration and implant placement. CONCLUSIONS: Oronasal fistulas resulting from maxillofacial surgery can be effectively treated using periodontal plastic surgery techniques, significantly improving patients' quality of life and aesthetic outcomes. This approach represents a valuable addition to the existing repertoire of oronasal fistula closure methods.

The Lima Surgical Protocol for Cleft Palate Repair.

BACKGROUND: A cleft team experience addressing non-syndromic cleft palate and cleft lip and palate is presented. The purpose of the present study is to compare surgical outcomes using 2 different protocols for cleft palate repair provided by a cleft team in Lima, Perú. METHODS: This is a comparative study between 2 groups of patients with non-syndromic cleft palate who were operated using different surgical protocols from 1999 to 2014. One hundred twenty-four children with non-syndromic isolated cleft palate and cleft lip and palate treated from 2007 to 2014 using a surgical protocol developed by our cleft team in Lima, Perú were compared with 145 children with cleft palate and cleft lip and palate treated by the same team using different protocol from 1999 to 2007. Data collection was accomplished by evaluation of symptomatic oronasal fistulas, presence of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) and postoperative complications. RESULTS: Statistical significant differences were observed between the 2 groups regarding the development of flap necrosis in favor of the Lima protocol. No significant difference in palatal fistula and VPI rate between the 2 protocols was found. CONCLUSIONS: The Lima Surgical Protocol for cleft palate repair is an alternative strategy which uses the strengths of different surgical techniques based on the severity of the cleft. We observed better surgical outcomes using the Lima protocol with regards to postoperative complications in patients with non-syndromic cleft palate.

Outcomes of Surgical Management of Palatal Fistulae in Patients With Repaired Cleft Palate.

BACKGROUND: The palatal fistula is an important surgical challenge within the longitudinal follow-up of patients with repaired cleft palate as the success rate of palatal fistula reconstruction by adopting several surgical techniques is variable and often unsatisfactory. The purpose of this retrospective study was to report the clinical outcomes of an algorithm for the surgical management of palatal fistulae in patients with repaired cleft palate. METHODS: Consecutive patients (n = 101) with repaired cleft palate and palatal fistula-related symptoms who were treated according to a specific algorithm between 2009 and 2017 were included. Based on the anatomical location (Pittsburgh fistula types II-V), amount of scarring (minimal or severe scarred palate), and diameter of the fistula (≤5 mm or >5 mm), 1 of 3 approaches (local flaps [62.4%], buccinator myomucosal flaps [20.8%], or tongue flaps [16.8%]) was performed. For clinical outcome assessment, symptomatic and anatomical parameters (fistula-reported symptoms and residual fistula, respectively) were combined as follows: complete fistula closure with no symptoms; asymptomatic narrow fistula remained; or failure to repair the fistula ("good," "fair," or "poor" outcomes, respectively). Surgical-related complication data were also collected. RESULTS: Most patients (91.1%) presented "good" clinical outcomes, ranging from 86.2% to 100% (86.2%, 100%, and 100% for local flaps, buccinator flaps, and tongue flaps, respectively). All (8.9%) "fair" and "poor" outcomes were observed in fistulae reconstructed by local flaps. All "poor" (5%) outcomes were observed in borderline fistulae (4-5 mm). No surgical-related complications (dehiscence, infections, or necrosis) were observed, except for an episode of bleeding after the 1st stage of tongue flap-based reconstruction (1.0%). CONCLUSION: A high rate of fistula resolution was achieved using this algorithm for surgical management of palatal fistulae in patients with repaired cleft palate.

Fístulas orais em equinos (parte 2)

Na edição anterior tratei sobre este mesmo tema e descrevi os tipos de fístulas, sua etiopatogenia, meios diagnósticos e sugestões de reparo além de ilustrar com alguns casos que me deparei na minha rotina, dando ênfase as fistulas intraorais. Nesta edição, demonstrarei mais alguns casos clínicos de fístulas e sua relação com tecidos dentários, porém com apresentação extraoral.

Fístulas orais em equinos (parte 2)

Na edição anterior tratei sobre este mesmo tema e descrevi os tipos de fístulas, sua etiopatogenia, meios diagnósticos e sugestões de reparo além de ilustrar com alguns casos que me deparei na minha rotina, dando ênfase as fistulas intraorais. Nesta edição, demonstrarei mais alguns casos clínicos de fístulas e sua relação com tecidos dentários, porém com apresentação extraoral.(AU)

Two Methods of Cleft Palate Repair in Patients With Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare the surgical outcome between 2 patient groups with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who underwent different types of palatoplasty. METHODS: This is a cohort study between 2 groups of patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who were operated using different surgical techniques from 2008 to 2011. About 28 patients were operated using a primary lip nose repair with vomer flap for hard palate single-layer closure and delayed soft palate repair (modified Oslo protocol) and 32 patients were operated using our protocol in Lima. Data collection was accomplished by evaluation of symptomatic oronasal fistulas, presence of velopharyngeal insufficiency and evaluation of dental arch relationships (scored using the 5-year-olds' index). RESULTS: Our comparative study observed statistically significant differences between the 2 groups regarding the presence of oronasal fistulas and velopharyngeal insufficiency in favor of our palatoplasty technique. A statistically significant difference was not found in functional vestibular oronasal fistula development between the studied techniques for unilateral cleft palate repair. This comparative study did not observe significant differences in dental arch relationships between the studied techniques. CONCLUSION: In this study, better surgical outcome than modified Oslo protocol regarding oronasal fistulas and velopharyngeal insufficiency on patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate was observed. The results arising from this study do not provide evidence that one technique is enough to obtain better functional closure of the alveolar cleft and dental arch relationship at 5 years.

Pedicle Tongue Flap for Palatal Fistula Closure.

BACKGROUND: Palatal fistulae are common sequels that appear in patients after surgical procedures in the palate. Considering the difficulty to achieve an effective treatment, there are many techniques to surgically manage fistulae, that is, the pedicle tongue flap. OBJECTIVE: Being so, the main goal of this paper is to report cases of patients with palatal fistulae, from different etiologies, treated with anterior pedicle tongue flap. PATIENTS: Eleven patients, 8 male and 3 female, mean age of 32 years old with palatal fistulae surgically treated with anterior dorsal tongue flaps. No flap was completely lost. There was 1 partial loss and 1 residual buconasal communication. The most common complaints of the patients were difficulty to perform oral hygiene and mild pain. CONCLUSION: The use of anterior pedicle tongue flap for closing palatal fistulae demonstrates to be a safe procedure with high success rates (81% in this paper) when correctly indicated.

Infantile osteopetrosis associated with osteomyelitis.

Osteopetrosis is a rare inherited disorder characterised by the inability to reabsorb and remodel bone due to an osteoclast dysfunction. An increase in bone mass and density results in severe skeletal malformation and bone marrow failure, which may be fatal. The aim of this study was to report a case of infantile osteopetrosis in a 6-year-old boy, who primarily complained of dental problems. The patient developed an osteomyelitis after a primary tooth extraction. We also reviewed the literature about this genetic bone disease, since the management of dental problems of these patients can be a challenge to the dentist. The diagnosis, clinical and radiographic features and treatment of the case were discussed in this work.

Use of the buccal fat pad as free graft for closure of oronasal fistula in a cleft palate patient.

Oronasal fistulas are frequent complications after cleft lip and palate surgery, with difficult treatment because of the presence of fibrotic and scarred tissue as well as the absence of local virgin tissue, representing a challenge in oral and maxillofacial surgery. The size of the fistula, its location, and the cause of the defect are important factors to determine the type of treatment and surgical technique. The use of pedicled buccal fat pad (BFP) for the repair of cleft palate has shown promising results, becoming a safe and effective method. On the other hand, the use of BFP as a free graft for oral defects has been rarely described in the literature. The current study is the first case report that shows the use of free graft of BFP in oronasal fistula after cleft lip and palate surgery and aimed to discuss the promising results of this surgical technique, suggesting it as a treatment option for anterior maxillary defects, when properly indicated.

Cuerpo adiposo bucal, su utilización en cirugía oral / Buccal fat body, its use in oral surgery

El cuerpo adiposo bucal es de gran utilidad en el tratamiento de defectos intraorales. La técnica descrita ha demostrado ser más sencilla,mejor tolerada y con menor tasa de complicaciones, que otras técnicas descriptas anteriormente. Por estos motivos es importante considerar a este elemento anatómico al momento de cerrar comunicaciones bucosinusales. El presente trabajo presenta la utilizacióndel mismo en tres casos de comunicación buco sinusal, todas de etilogía odontógena.

Fat body bucal is very useful when treating intraoral defects. The technique has proven to be simpler, more tolerable and shows a lowercomplication rate than the utilization of other techniques previously described. This is why it's important to consider this anatomic element when closing communication between oral and nasal cavities. We present the utilization of said element in three cases of communication between cavities, all of them of odontogenic etiology.

Two-flap palatoplasty for treatment of oronasal fistula by trauma sequel.

The oronasal fistula is a chronic communication between the oral and nasal cavity that often affects patients with cleft palate. However, others uncommon causes of oronasal fistula are associated with facial traumas, infections and neoplasias. In this report we present a case of oronasal fistula as consequence of facial trauma that was treated by two flaps technique for palatoplasty. In this sense, we discussed treatment indications, surgical technique and patient prognostic of a relatively simple option that can provide a definitive repair with minimal morbidity.

Surgical repositioning of the premaxilla with bone graft in 50 bilateral cleft lip and palate patients.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate a modified surgical technique for premaxilla repositioning with concomitant autogenous bone grafting in bilateral trans-foramen cleft lip and palate patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 50 bilateral trans-foramen cleft lip and palate patients. Bone graft was harvested from the mandibular symphysis in 24 patients. Whenever more grafting was necessary, the iliac crest bone was used as the donor site (26 patients). The premaxilla was displaced by rupturing the bone and the palatine mucosa, and repositioned in a more adequate position using a surgical guide. The premaxilla and the grafts were fixed with miniplates and screws or screws only. The surgical guide was kept in place for 2 months, whereas the miniplates and screws were removed after 6 months, together with the complete bilateral lip and nose repair. Follow-up examinations were performed at 3, 6, and 12 months by means of periapical and occlusal radiographs, and by clinical examination. Thereafter, the patients were referred for completion of the orthodontic treatment. RESULTS: Overall, in 48 cases (96%) the treatment achieved total graft integration, with complete closure of the bucconasal and palatal fistulas, and premaxilla stability (either at first surgery or after reoperation). In the remaining 2 patients (4%), the treatment failed, due to necrosis of the premaxilla. CONCLUSIONS: The procedure is complex and involves risk. However, the patient's social inclusion, especially at the addressed age group, is the best benefit achieved.

Fístula buconasal causada por dispositivo ortodôntico: caso clínico / Oral nasal fistula after rapid palatal expansion: case report

A expansão rápida de maxila é um procedimento ortopédico essencial para o tratamento de deficiência transversa da maxila e mordida cruzada posterior. O uso do arco transpalatino como contenção é uma rotina ortodôntica para aumentar a estabilidade da expansão obtida. O propósito deste trabalho foi relatar uma complicação proveniente do arco transpalatino que causou necrose tecidual e fístula buconasal. Os autores descreveram o tratamento cirúrgico preconizado para oclusão da mesma. O acompanhamento pós-operatório de um ano mostrou a eficácia da técnica descrita.

Unilateral patent nasopalatine duct: a case report and review of the literature.

A 15-year-old white female sought our institution complaining of a chirping noise during speech and swallowing. The noise was spontaneous, perceptible, and enhanced when hard suction on the anterior palate was performed. The patient reported no trauma, infection, or other clinical feature related to the noise. Clinical examination showed 2 small grooves on both sides of the midline, lateral to the incisive papilla. The left groove was visually deeper. Careful probing with a gutta-percha cone revealed the existence of a communication on this side extending from the mouth to the nasal cavity, which was confirmed clinically and radiographically. Probing was not possible on the right side. The diagnosis was unilateral patent nasopalatine duct, which was surgically treated. We report here a new case of patent nasopalatine duct and also present a review of the pertinent literature.

Evaluation of different treatments for oroantral/oronasal communications: experience of 112 cases.

This retrospective study analyzed the etiologic factors, location and treatments for patients with oroantral or oronasal communications (OAC or ONC). Data analysis extended to gender, age, etiology, location, type of treatment and short-term complications from January 1988 to May 2004. A total of 112 patients with 101 (90%) OAC and 11 (10%) ONC were included. The main etiology for OAC was tooth extraction (95%) with similar prevalence between right (49%) and left (51%) side. For ONC, pathological conditions (27%) and exodontia (27%) were the most prevalent. For the treatment of OAC, suture was the technique most frequently used (60%), followed by buccal fat pad (28%), buccal flap (9%), palatal flap (2%) and one dental transplant (1%). For ONC, the following treatments were used: suture (46%), buccal flap (36%) and palatal flap (18%). Failure to eliminate the communication occurred in six (6%) patients of the OAC group and three (27%) of the ONC group. The results confirm that tooth extraction was the most common etiologic factor for ONC and OAC. Suture, when the communication was small (3-5 mm), and the use of a buccal fat pad (100% successful), when a larger communication existed (>5 mm), seemed to be the two best choices for treatment.

Selamento de fístula buco sinusal utilizando o corpo adiposo da bochecha. Breve revisão da literatura e relato de caso clínico / Oroantral fistula closure using buccal fat pad. Brief review of literature and report of clinical case

As fístulas buco sinusais são complicações geralmente relacionadas com as exodontias dos dentes superiores posteriores, devido à proximidade existente entre os ápices desses elementos dentais e o assoalho do seio maxilar. O presente trabalho objetiva, com base em berve revisão da literatura e na experiência dos autores, mostrar as vantagens e desvantagens da utilização do corpo adiposo da bochecha para o selamento das fístulas oroantrais e apresentar um caso clínico incomum de um paciente portador de fístula buco sinusal bilateral que se submeteu a essa modalidade de tratamento.

Management of the traumatic oronasal fistula in the cat with a conical silastic prosthetic device.

Management of a traumatic oronasal fistula with a prosthetic device in an 8-year-old male neutered domestic shorthair cat is described. The animal had fallen from a height of three stories at the age of 1 year. The fall had resulted in a fracture of the hard palate and a split in the palatal mucosa. Two surgical attempts to close the defect had been unsuccessful and an autopolymerizable acrylic resin prosthesis had produced unsatisfactory results. The management of the chronic traumatic fistula with a conical prosthetic device was fast, easy and efficient. The device was removed and a second one was put in place after 2 years. This method would appear particularly useful for obturation of large palatal defects that have failed to heal after attempts at surgical closure and is an alternative treatment for debilitated cats which may not be candidates for longer surgical procedures.

Incidência de fístula orosonal após palatopatias / Incidence of oronasal fistulas after palatoplasties

0 objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar as características de um grupo de pacientes com fissura palatina congênita, seu tratamento e a incidência de fístulas oronasais. Inclui uma análise retrospectiva de 98 pacientes, operados por seis cirurgiões plásticos, no período de março/2002 a fevereiro/2003. Foram 51 pacientes do sexo masculino e 47 do feminino, idade mediana de 34 meses e acompanhamento médio de 10 meses. A extensão da fissura foi descrita pela classificação de Spina e Veau. As variáveis observadas foram: idade, sexo, técnica cirúrgica, cirurgião e complicações. Na análise estatística utilizou-se o teste Qui-quadrado de associação. As técnicas mais utilizadas foram a de Bardoch e a de Veau. As complicações incidiram em 20,4 (per cent) dos pacientes, sendo que a fístula oronasal ocorreu em 15,3 (per cen) das palatoplastias. Esta taxa de complicação obteve diferença significativa quando relacionada à extensão da fissura (p=0,006); não havendo diferenças quando relacionada a outras variáveis. Nossa incidência de fístula encontra-se equiparado à literatura e mostra que as diversas técnicas utilizadas são válidas no tratamento da fenda palatina.