Open reduction for condylar process fracture of the mandible through an intra-oral approach

Abstract

Conservative procedures are often selected to treat condylar process fractures of the mandible, partly because of anatomical and functional complexities and partly because of the technical difficulty of open reduction, which include skin incision, resulting scarring, and the possibility of facial nerve and parotid gland injury.
However, we believe that the rationale for fracture treatment is to reduce and fixated broken bones to anatomical positions and that surgical procedures should be instituted as necessary. With this conviction, we studies a modified surgical procedure to reduce condylar process fractures of the mandible through an intra-oral approach.
This modified procedure involves mucosal incision at the anterior margin of the mandibular ramus prior to reducing the articular process. The region from the articular process is then fixate with a titanium miniplating system or a banding system, which we devised and developed. In the case of band fixation the region is wrapped in headband form.
In our banding system fixation the band is made of pure titanium and is 6mm to 8mm wide and 0.3mm thick. It is the form of a plate, allowing easy operability. This procedure has the advantages of no skin incision, no skin scarring, and minimal risk of facial nerve and parotid gland injury.