LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF MANDIBULAR ASYMMETRY IN HEMIFACIAL MICROSOMIA

Reconstruction of the mandible is one of the key elements in the skele tal rehabilitation of patients with hemifacial microsomia. Unfortunate ly, knowledge about longterm mandibular skeletal growth in these patie nts is lacking. The purpose of this study was to analyze mandibular sk eletal growth longitudinally in unoperated hemifacial microsomia patie nts from childhood to adolescence. The longitudinal records of 26 pati ents with unoperated unilateral hemifacial microsomia were utilized. T he average age at initial records was 3.1 years, and the average age a t final records was 16.7 years, Posteroanterior cephalometric radiogra phs were utilized to evaluate both horizontal and vertical mandibular asymmetry. Patients also were analyzed according to the grade and side of the mandibular deformity. A paired t test (P < 0.05) and a two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. There were 5 patients with grade I, 14 with grade II, and 7 with grade III. The results indicated that the skeletal mandibular asymmetry in hemifacial microsomia is not pro gressive in nature and that growth of the affected side in these patie nts parallels that of the nonaffected side. The grade and the side of the mandibular deformity did not influence these findings. These resul ts should be considered when treatment strategies are developed to rec onstruct the asymmetrical mandible in hemifacial microsomia.