THE STABILITY OF MAXILLARY ADVANCEMENT USING LE-FORT-I OSTEOTOMY WITHAND WITHOUT GENIAL BONE-GRAFTING

The purpose of this study was to determine whether better stability is achieved with genial bone grafts and four-plate rigid fixation for la rge advancement Le Fort I osteotomies of the maxilla than with nongraf ted osteotomies. We analyzed radiographic data on 22 patients with obs tructive sleep apnea syndrome. All patients underwent Le Fort I osteot omy for maxillary advancement, 11 patients without bone grafts and 11 patients with bone grafts harvested from the mandibular symphyseal are a. Bilateral sagittal split advancement osteotomies and genial tubercl e advancements were also performed in all patients. Patients in the ge nial bone-grafted group had a mean advancement (surgical change) of 9. 7 mm and a mean relapse (postsurgical change) of 0.7 mm (7%). Patients who had rigid fixation alone had a mean advancement of 10 mm and a me an relapse of 1.8 mm (18%). It is concluded that the stability with ge nial bone grafts to the lateral wall of the maxilla with four-plate ri gid fixation was better than in the nongrafted group.