[Dismorphism. Long face syndrome. Diagnostic and therapeutic considerations]

The Authors consider the main clinical aspects that characterize the Long Face Syndrome. In the more serious cases, where it is the global presence of the several elements which concur to the increase of the vertical facial dimension, it is suitable a precise diagnostic checking to the three-dimensional surgical correction to realize in one time. The Authors, in the treated cases, emphasize, on the one hand, besides the traditional cephalometry, the importance of the counter-party analysis of Enlow and, on the other, they emphasize the use of the present imaging means like CT and MR to the structural evaluation of the dysmorphism in the muscular and skeletal components. From the surgical aspect the Authors emphasize the favourable results obtained associating the surgical expansion of the upper maxilla with autogenous osseous graft to the traditional maxillary osteotomies, that favours: 1) the increase of the transverse diameter, to the orthognatodontic correction of the crossbite; 2) the correction of the nasal respiratory insufficiency; 3) the precise definition and the correction of the vertical dimension of the upper maxilla.