Fronto-orbital advancement: Comparison of syndromic and nonsyndromic craniosynostosis patients

Craniosynostosis causes functional and aesthetic problems that require fronto-orbital advancement in patients to correct the cranial deformity and to prevent functional problems due to increased intracranial pressure (ICP). In this study, demographic information, operative details, preoperative clinical findings, and postoperative outcomes were reviewed for 106 craniosynostosis patients with at least 1 year of follow-up. Many factors such as functional losses due to increased ICP before surgery, resynostosis, fronto-orbital relapse, surgical complications and aesthetic results were compared in syndromic and non-syndromic patients. Among 106 patients, 77 (73%) were nonsyndromic, while 29 (27%) were syndromic. The rate of functional losses was higher in syndromic patients before the surgery. We divided the complications into two groups: treatable and untreatable. In both groups, complication rates were higher in syndromic patients than in non-syndromic patients. There were no differences between syndromic and non-syndromic patients in terms of resynostosis and fronto-orbital relaps. Acceptable aesthetic appearance was determined in 83% of syndromic patients and 90% of nonsyndromic patients. Surgical complication rate is higher in syndromic cases than nonsyndromic, but the success rate of surgery is high, and the aesthetic outcomes are acceptable both syndromic and nonsyndromic patients in this study.