Long-term skeletal stability after maxillary advancement with distraction osteogenesis in cleft lip and palate patients.

OBJECTIVE

To systematically review the long-term skeletal stability after maxillary advancement with distraction osteogenesis (DO) in cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Electronic databases, grey literature, and reference list searches were conducted. The inclusion criteria were stability of maxillary advancement with distraction osteogenesis assessed at the posttreatment follow-up ≥ 1 year in CLP patients. Full articles were retrieved from abstracts or titles that appear to meet the inclusion criteria or lacked sufficient detail for immediate exclusion. Once full articles were collected, they were again reviewed considering more detailed inclusion criteria for a final selection decision. A methodologic quality assessment tool was utilized.

RESULTS

Thirty abstracts/titles met the initial search criteria, and 13 articles were finally selected. Overall, methodologic quality scores were high in only one randomized clinical trial. After maxillary advancement with DO in CLP patients, the long-term horizontal relapse in A-point was less than 15% in eight studies and between 20% and 25% in four studies. The study that was judged as a high-quality study reported 8.2% horizontal relapse in A-point. The relapse rate was higher in DO with external distracter device than DO with internal distracter device.

CONCLUSIONS

Current evidence suggests maxillary advancement with DO has good stability in CLP patients with moderate and severe maxillary hypoplasia.