The skeletal stability of one-piece Le Fort 1 osteotomy to advance the maxilla; Part 1. Stability resulting from non-bone grafted rigid fixation

During the past decade, we have increasingly preferred to do a one-piece Le Fort 1 osteotomy to advance the maxilla, sometimes in isolation to treat patients with maxillary retrusive skeletal Class III patients or combined with mandibular advancement to treat bimaxillary retrusive skeletal Class II. Clinical impressions of rigid fixation techniques have indicated that there is improved stability when compared with wire fixation. There are few studies in the literature that have addressed relapse following one-piece Le Fort 1 osteotomy to advance the maxilla. Such surgery involves one single spatial movement and thereby eliminates other possible surgical variables, which may impact on the degree of stability achievable postoperatively. We studied 45 patients who had undergone a uniform one-piece maxillary advancement with elimination of controllable variables, apart from 15 patients who had simultaneous mandibular advancement. Rigid fixation was adopted throughout the study. The mean surgical change documented was 7.42 mm. The mean stability calculated at 12 months revealed a relapse of 0.72 mm (10%). This was not significant (P = 0.3). We conclude that the Le Fort 1 advancement osteotomy is a stable and surgically predictable procedure that gives only slight relapse at 12 months.