Cleft-orthognathic surgery: complications and long-term results

We reviewed the complications and long-term results of a consecutive series of adolescents (67 males, 49 females; age range 15 to 25 years; mean 18 years) born with a cleft who underwent primary repair in childhood and later developed a jaw deformity and malocclusion that required orthognathic surgery. Between 1986 and 1992, 116 adolescents with either unilateral cleft lip and palate (n = 66), bilateral cleft lip and palate (n = 33), or isolated cleft palate (n = 17) underwent an orthognathic procedure that included a Le Fort I osteotomy; 32 also underwent simultaneous sagittal split osteotomies of the mandible; and 87 underwent osteoplastic genioplasty. Clinical follow-up ranged from 1 to 7 years (mean 40 months) at the close of the study. The preoperative clinical examination varied according to cleft type and individual variation, but all patients had maxillary hypoplasia. Additional cleft-related deformities included residual oronasal fistula and bony defects, clefted alveolar ridges that retained dental gaps, and mobile premaxilla that lacked union to the lateral segments. Overall, 89 percent of residual fistulas underwent successful closure as part of the orthognathic procedure. Surgical cleft dental gap closure was achieved and maintained to the extent planned at 92 percent of the cleft sites. A fixed (prosthetic) bridge was used successfully for dental rehabilitation to close the gap in all other patients at each cleft site (n = 9). All patients with alveolar clefts (n = 99) maintained keratinized mucosa along the labial surface of the cleft-adjacent teeth (n = 264 teeth). Complications were few and generally not serious. There was no segmental bone loss of teeth because of aseptic necrosis or infection. Only 5 percent of cleft adjacent teeth underwent a degree of gingival recession and root exposure as a result of the maxillary osteotomy procedure; all were retained long term. The long-term maintenance of overjet and overbite measured directly from the late (> 1 year) postoperative lateral cephalometric radiograph indicated that 97 percent of patients maintained a positive overjet and 89 percent maintained a positive overbite; 5 percent shifted to a neutral overbite. The methods used to manage jaw deformity, malocclusion, residual oronasal fistula, and bony defects in adolescents born with a cleft are safe and reliable and offer the patient an enhanced quality of life. They also provide a stable foundation in which final soft-tissue lip and nose revisions may be carried out.