New aspects of craniofacial surgery

The concept of craniofacial surgery, introduced by a French plastic surgeon named Paul Tessier, has completely transformed the treatment of facial deformities affecting the skeleton. Two of the more spectacular operations are correction of teleorbitism by orbital mobilization, and correction of facial retrusion by facial or fronto-facial advancement. These operations have evolved with the bipartition principle and the monobloc and splitting techniques. Craniofacial techniques applied in infancy for correction of craniosynostosis have proved very successful in most cases. The increasing use of miniplate fixation and utilization of cranial bone grafts are mentioned, as well as advances made in genetic and fetal diagnosis.