The development of automatically controlled surgical robots（ACSRs）has a number of limitations. Due to their rigidity, the protection of a patient’s soft blood vessels and nerves in surgery using ACSRs may be extremely difficult. Therefore, ACSRs have not yet been applied practically. The present study investigated these limitations with the aim of developing the world’s first ACSRs that can be successfully applied practically during surgery. The first surgical procedure we aim to apply ACSRs to is Le Fort I osteotomy in maxillofacial surgery. While performing Le Fort I osteotomy, robots must avoid damage to the descending palatine artery, which may cause fatal bleeding or necrosis of the osteotomized maxilla. We succeeded in automatically stopping osteotomy immediately before the artery without the need to acquire numerical model information in advance; that is, with model-free detection. We have reported this application three times to date, including the first overview. In the second study, we reported automatic control based on the concept of the Z-score. In the third study, we used a support vector machine to extract two feature vector components. In the present study, we increased the number of feature vector extraction components by one, bringing the total to three, and implemented more accurate automatic control.

　　Cryptotia, a common congenital auricular deformity in Japan, presents challenges in establishing a standardized treatment approach and materials. Although nonsurgical correction methods have shown effectiveness, there is a lack of consensus regarding optimal corrective techniques. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the effectiveness of dental silicone impression material （EXAFINE^Ⓡ PUTTY TYPE, GC, Tokyo, Japan） for correction of auricular deformities. We graded the results of correction and classified them as follows: Excellent and Good as success and Poor as failure. Our cohort included 37 patients ( 24 men and 13 women, 49 auricles［24 right-sided, 1 left-sided, and 12 bilateral auricles］). Complications included dermatitis (seven patients) and skin erosion (four patients). We observed the following results: Excellent in 27, Good in 4, and Poor in 6 patients. Notably, all patients in the poor correction group exhibited the transverse muscle type (superior crus type) morphology. The success rate of achieving auriculotemporal groove formation using our method was 84%, which is consistent with that reported by previous studies (≥80%). These findings underscore the effectiveness of our therapeutic approach for cryptotia, particularly with regard to achieving functional outcomes.

　　There are several approaches to facilitate open reduction and internal fixation of mandibular condyle fractures, such as preauricular, submandibular, retromandibular, and oral approaches. However, all of them are complicated by the presence of facial nerves. The modified high perimandibular approach is not yet widely used in Japan, but it is a very useful and simple procedure with a low incidence of causing postoperative facial nerve palsy and aperture dysfunction. This method is a modification of the high perimandibular approach proposed by Wilk et al. In this report, we describe two cases in which the modified high perimandibular approach was used, with some discussion of the literature.

　　Osteomas are benign bone tumors typically found on or inside bones, commonly in the skull region (e.g., frontal and temporal bones). Although trauma has been described as one of the causes of osteoma, evidence of trauma history is not clear in most cases. We report the details of a patient with mandibular osteoma that arose after trauma. One year prior to presentation, a 9-year-old girl suffered from a jaw laceration with bone exposure, and she underwent suturing of the laceration. Six months later, a hard mass began to grow under the laceration scar. Computed tomography showed a bony protrusion in the mandible, leading to a diagnosis of osteoma. The lesion was surgically resected under general anesthesia. Pathology confirmed the lesion as a peripheral osteoma of the cancellous type in the mandible. There had been no recurrence as of 1 year post-surgery. This case is rare for two reasons: the clear history of trauma, and tumor occurring in the mandible. Since the tumor developed precisely where the trauma affected the patient’s bone, the trauma may have played a role in the osteoma development.

　　Nasopalatine duct cysts are common in males between 30 and 50 years old; however, they are rare in children. We report a pediatric case of large nasopalatine duct cyst. The patient, an 11-year-old male, was referred because of swelling and pain in the anterior maxillary region that had persisted since March 2020. CT showed a large 38×42×31-mm radiolucent cyst in the anterior maxillary region. Contrast-enhanced MRI showed a unilocular, uniform high signal on both T1- and T2-weighted images. Based on imaging and clinical findings, the patient was diagnosed with a nasopalatine duct cyst. Fenestration was performed as well as biopsy in June 2020. After waiting for the cyst to shrink, it was removed with a palatal approach in March 2021. Based on the results of histopathological examination, the patient was diagnosed with a nasopalatine duct cyst. At three years after surgery, there was no evidence of recurrence and effective bone regeneration was observed.