[Therapeutic concept in comminuted and defect fractures of the mandible]

Immediate live-saving emergency treatment of patients with heavily communited and partially defective mandibles by airway intubation, control of haemorhage and primary treatment of wounds necessarily must be followed by a staged concept of treatment for the functional and aesthetic rehabilitation of hard and soft tissue in order to enable the patient to survive not only biologically but also socially. Out of 384 patients with surgically treated mandibular fractures, 120 had multiple fractures, 24 heavily comminuted fractures and 6 sustained vast defects. All multiple and communited fractures could be treated successfully by an intraoral approach using function-orientated miniplate-osteosynthesis and in 30 cases functionally stable plates. In patients having sustained vast avulsions of soft and hard tissue, immediate emergency-revascularisation was well to the fore. In cases of tissue destruction, primarily the position of the jaw stumps was secured by plates and reconstruction was done in the early secondary stage using composed microvascularly transferred scapular flaps.