title: Comparative study of maxillary growth and occlusal outcome after autogenous rib grafting in complete cleft palate defect.
abstract: Cleft palate is a congenital deformity with soft tissue and hard tissue defects. Normal cleft palate repairing surgery only repairs soft tissue defects, whereas bone defects in the hard palate still exist. Therefore, we conducted this study in beagles to observe the influence of bone grafting at primary surgery on craniofacial growth and occlusal relationships in individuals with complete cleft palate and to provide experimental evidence for optimal surgical procedures for cleft palate. Using 60 beagle puppies as subjects, we tested the effects of bone grafting in surgically induced palatal defect. The animals were randomly and equally divided into four groups: (1) unoperated controls; (2) surgically induced unilateral cleft palate, not repaired; (3) two-flap palatoplasty used to close the soft defect of the surgically induced cleft palate; (4) autogenous bone (a piece of rib bone) implanted into the palatal defect before two-flap palatoplasty was performed.Cephalometric roentgenography and plaster casts of the maxillary were taken preoperatively and every 4 weeks after surgery. Sixty metric cranial variables were measured directly from the cleaned skulls after the animals were killed the 34th week postoperatively. The measurement results indicated that bone grafting may reduce the disturbance of maxillary growth caused by the cleft palate and the denuded bone, but it may cause other maxillary deformities. This finding suggests that surgeons should be careful in choosing the method of primary bone grafting in repairing complete cleft palate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China College of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, The People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Dian-zhi
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016025:Bone Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D002508:Cephalometry; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D003724:Dental Arch / Q000254:growth & development / Q000473:pathology; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008437:Maxilla / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008445:Maxillofacial Development / Q000502:physiology; D009666:Nose / Q000473:pathology; D021362:Palate, Hard / Q000601:surgery; D010521:Periosteum / Q000601:surgery; D011897:Random Allocation; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures; D012272:Ribs; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013997:Time Factors