title: Le Fort I distraction using internal devices for maxillary hypoplasia in patients with cleft lip, palate, and alveolus: complications and their prevention and management.
abstract: In recent years, advancement has been made in distraction osteogenesis in the facial area. It has been applied actively to treat maxillary hypoplasia in patients with cleft lip, palate, and alveolus. Le Fort I distraction using internal devices does not lead to disability in daily living, including during the retention period, and has low surgical invasiveness, facile management, and superior aesthetics. Thus, there have been occasional reports on this procedure in recent years. Because an internal device is unidirectional, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to adjust the direction of distraction after its placement. However, past reports have emphasized its advantages, and its complications have rarely been discussed. We performed Le Fort I distraction using internal devices on 15 young patients. Our results showed notable complications in a few cases. When serial cephalometric analysis was performed after maxillary distraction, it demonstrated that the maxilla assumes various three-dimensional distraction morphologies. In particular, cases with insufficient bone grafting of alveolar clefts developed collapse mainly in the alveolar cleft region during postoperative distraction. Mobility and deviation of the maxillary bone fragment occurred. We implemented preventative measures against complications such as using modifications to place the devices parallel on the left and right sides and using a bite splint for distraction. These measures produced improved outcomes, and we describe here the details.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Showa, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. nmitsu@air.linkclub.or.jp
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mitsukawa
authors.forename: Kaneshige
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Morishita
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000539:Alveolar Process / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000601:surgery*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D016268:Internal Fixators; D008437:Maxilla / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D019857:Osteogenesis, Distraction / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019340:Osteotomy, Le Fort / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome