Internal fixation strategies of palatal fracture: a review of 74 cases / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the efficacy of different internal fixations of palatal fracture.Methods Seventy-four patients with palatal fracture admitted between October 2007 and October 2013 were reviewed retrospectively.Through out-patient follow-up,postoperative occlusion and palatal complications were examined and fracture healing was evaluated using CT scan.Results Palatal type Ⅰ-Vfractures involved in 8 patients (11％),14 patients (19％),26 (35％),12 patients (16％),6 patients (8％),and 8 patients (11％) respectively.Forty-three patients were available to follow-up,including 31 patients with good or acceptable occlusion.All wounds healed without palate associated infections,plate exposure or oronasal fistula.Of the 27 patients classified as type Ⅱ,Ⅲ and V sagittal palatal fractures,both nasomaxillary and zygomatico-maxillary struts fixation (n =17) and isolated zygomatico-maxillary struts fixation (n =10) had insignificant differences in success rate as to occlusion assessment (82％ vs 80％,P ＞0.05).Whereas compared with isolated vertical buttress fixation (n =15),additional immobilization of horizontal alveolar buttresses (n =12) had significantly higher success rate (100％ vs 67％,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Complete rigid fixation at early stage,including vertical buttress fixation,in particular the zygomatico-maxillary struts,and horizontal alveolar buttress fixation can achieve satisfactory outcome.