Virtual planning in orthognathic surgery.

Area of Science:

• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Medical Imaging
• Computer-Aided Surgery

Background:

• Limited systematic reviews exist on virtual surgical planning (VSP) for orthognathic procedures.
• Most publications focus on single or few case reports, lacking robust clinical trial data.
• A systematic review is needed to analyze VSP precision and accuracy against actual surgical outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and analyze the precision and accuracy of 3D virtual surgical planning in orthognathic procedures.
• To compare virtual surgical plans with actual surgical outcomes reported in clinical trials.
• To assess the reliability of VSP based on existing clinical trial evidence.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search for clinical trials comparing virtual surgical plans with actual surgical outcomes.
• Inclusion criteria: sample size >5 patients, comparison of virtual plan vs. actual outcome.
• Data extraction and analysis of precision and accuracy metrics (ICC, 3D surface area, linear/angular differences).

Main Results:

• Seven clinical trials with 149 patients were included.
• Success criteria (mean difference <2mm) were met by 125 out of 133 patients in six studies.
• Virtual planning demonstrated accuracy and reproducibility, with high success rates reported.

Conclusions:

• Three-dimensional virtual surgical planning is an accurate and reproducible method for orthognathic treatment.
• Further research requires more uniform data presentation to enable meta-analysis.
• Independent clinical trials are essential to further validate the precision of virtual surgical planning.