An analysis of Le Fort I maxillary advancement in cleft lip and palate patients

We present a series of 24 consecutive cleft lip and palate patients aged 16 to 46 years (mean age 27 years) who underwent Le Fort I maxillary advancement by the senior author over the past 8 years. Two groups, one of 12 patients with wire fixation and one of 12 patients with miniplate fixation, were evaluated. Each group had 10 unilateral and 2 bilateral clefts. All patients were grafted with autogenous bone (8 cranial, 14 iliac, and 2 mandibular). Horizontal advancement was 3 mm to 2 cm (with a mean of 7.8 mm). Vertical movement ranged from a shortening of 5 mm to a lengthening of 1.3 cm (mean 2.3 mm of lengthening). The amount and timing of relapse were compared in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions. The plated group was more stable in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions (p < 0.05). No significant skeletal relapses occurred after the first year. Statistically significant dental relapse occurred only in the wired group. Three patients developed transverse collapse of the small maxillary cleft segment, and four developed incisor angulation to compensate for maxillary skeletal relapse. The presence of a pharyngeal flap at the time of advancement appeared to increase relapse in both horizontal and vertical dimensions (p < 0.03), but there were too few patients (7 of 24) with pharyngeal flaps to prove this conclusively. We also concluded that pterygomandibular grafting is not necessary to achieve excellent results using miniplate fixation; autogenous grafting of the anterior maxillary osteotomy alone provides the necessary stability.