Abstract
Twenty six cases of mandibular reconstruction using metal bone plates treated at the Shinshu University School of Medicine's Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery in the period from January 1986 to December 1990 were reviewed.
In 22 cases of segmental resection and 4 cases of hemimandibular resection (19 malignant neoplasms and 7 benign lesions), immediate reconstruction using free or vascularized bone grafts was performed in 7 cases, secondary reconstruction was done in 9 cases and reconstruction using metal plates was only done in 10 cases.
The success rate of mandibular reconstruction was good in the immediate reconstruction group (100 %) and in the secondary reconstruction group (77.8 %), but was relatively poor (40 %) in the group where reconstruction was carried out using only metal plates.
The following postoperative complications were observed in many unsuccessful cases; postoperative infection (9 cases), plate exposure (3 cases), and plate detachment (1 case) .
Though plate breakage occurred in 3 cases, reconstruction was successful in each of those cases.
