Costochondral graft construction/reconstruction of the ramus/condyle unit: long-term follow-up

This is a retrospective study of 26 patients (seven growing and 19 non-growing) who received costochondral grafts (n = 33) for construction or reconstruction of the ramus/condyle unit (RCU). Facial appearance, jaw motion, occlusion, contour, and linear growth changes were documented preoperatively, immediately postoperatively, and long-term (> 1 year). Average follow-up was 48.6 months for growing and 46.4 months for nongrowing patients. Facial asymmetry and malocclusion were successfully corrected in all patients except for those with hemifacial microsomia, where partial correction was most common. For the growing patients mean change in RCU length (n = 8) during the observation period was +3.1 mm on the constructed/reconstructed side and +3.2 mm on the unoperated side. For nongrowing patients, mean change in the RCU length (n = 25) was -5.7 mm for the reconstructed side. Three patients developed lateral contour overgrowth of the articulating surface; no patients developed clinically significant linear overgrowth with malocclusion. The results of this study indicate that a costochondral graft may be used successfully to construct/reconstruct the RCU and that linear overgrowth of the graft does not appear to be a clinical problem with the method described in this paper.