Synostotic frontal plagiocephaly: anthropometric comparison of three techniques for surgical correction

Surgical correction of synostotic frontal plagiocephaly ("unilateral coronal synostosis") focuses on distortions of the forehead and orbits. Technical variations include unilateral versus bilateral fronto-orbital positioning. Surgical alignment of the deviated nasal root was introduced in our unit. Anthropometry was used to assess anatomic outcome, and results were compared in 22 children with synostotic frontal plagiocephaly who had either (1) unilateral fronto-orbital advancement ("canthal advancement") (n = 8), (2) bilateral fronto-orbital advancement/ modeling without nasal straightening (n = 7), or (3) bilateral fronto-orbital advancement/modeling with closing wedge nasal osteotomy (n = 7). Postoperative fronto-orbital asymmetry was most marked in the group I patients wherein the ipsilateral supraorbital rim was retruded 3.9 mm and elevated 2.6 mm, on average relative to the corneal apex, compared with the normal side. Group II children averaged 2-mm orbital retrusion and 2.2-mm elevation. Group III patients averaged 1.4-mm orbital retrusion and 2.9-mm elevation. These differences in orbital rim measurements among the three groups were not statistically significant. Postoperative nasal root angulation of 4 degrees or more was found in more than 50 percent of children who had either a unilateral or a bilateral procedure, without nasal correction. In contrast, primary nasal osteotomy resulted in a nasal cant of 3 degrees or less in all children. This difference in nasal angulation among the three groups was statistically significant (p = 0.035). Group III had a straighter nasal angle than groups II and I (in that order). Measurement of the distances from nasion to inner and to outer canthi also reflected persistent deviation of the nasal root. Group III children had a more central radix than either group I or II (p = 0.05). The data in this study support an operative strategy of bilateral (parallelogrammic) positioning of the forehead/ superior orbits with primary correction of nasal root angulation.