Rigid External Distractor-Aided Advancement After Simultaneously Performed LeFort-III Osteotomy and Fronto-Orbital Advancement.

ABSTRACT

Due to the complex development of the craniofacial skull, corrective surgery is a major challenge for patients with severe craniofaciostenosis. Although fronto-orbital advancement and simultaneous LeFort-III osteotomy in combination with distraction osteogenesis have been reported as a safe and successful method to obtain good esthetic and functional results, there is a lack of studies evaluating this method.Our retrospective study included 12 patients with syndromic craniofaciostenosis, who were primarily treated at our department in accordance with a standardized treatment protocol, consisting of a simultaneous fronto-orbital advancement with LeFort-III osteotomy in combination with a rigid external distractor (RED-II). Distraction distance, duration of operation, postoperative complications, perioperative hemoglobin concentration, esthetic outcome, and the subjective Whitaker Scale were used to evaluate the success of our surgical method.The esthetic outcome of all of our patients was assessed as good. Furthermore, the surgical outcome was assigned I for 11 patients and II for 1 patient, who suffered from wound healing disturbance at the left temporal site, which required revision 2 weeks postoperatively. The mean skeletal advancement of the midface was 16.4 mm, ranging from 12 to 20 mm.Our standardized treatment protocol, consisting of fronto-orbital advancement in combination with LeFort-III osteotomy and application of a rigid external distractor device (RED-III) for patients with severe syndromic craniofaciostenosis, goes along with low infection rates and more predictable and precise esthetic and functional outcomes than the conventional surgical technique without distraction osteogenesis.