Methods of simultaneous treatment of the mandible defects and the adjacent soft tissues.

Original methods of removing combined defects of the mandibular body and the adjacent soft tissues are described: osteoplasty by local tissues and nonfree osteoplasty. A compression-distraction apparatus of the authors' own construction is used. During the re-arrangement of the bone fragments and the osteotomized portions of the mandible, simultaneous repair of the defect of the bony tissue and the soft tissues takes place without using free bone transplants and soft-tissue flaps. Duration of treatment varies between 2 1/2 and 5 months depending on the size of the defect. A total of 12 persons with traumatic defects of the lower jaw from 2 to 8 cm in length and of the adjacent soft tissues were treated by these methods. Good functional and cosmetic results were obtained.