Craniofacial trauma

The treatment of combined major dislocations of the face and skull requires a craniofacial team consisting of a plastic maxillofacial surgeon, a neurosurgeon, an anesthesiologist, and radiologists. The best results can only be achieved at the primary intervention both from a functional and an esthetic standpoint. Careful preoperative clinical and radiologic examinations are mandatory to reach these high goals. In primary repair, the cranial approach aims at constructing "a monobloc bone flap" to suture meningeal tears and to reinforce them with a pericranial graft, to close the cranial base completely using cancellous bone grafts, and to exclude the frontal sinuses. The facial skeleton is repaired by constructing a rigid external facial frame and thereafter progressing centrally finishing with the "internal" orbitonasal dislocations. The reconstruction aims at a self-stabilizing bone puzzle fixed with interosseous wires, making external fixation unnecessary. Secondary repair requires osteotomies at fracture sites to reposition malunited fractures and the use of autogenous bone grafts for stabilization.