Access Osteotomy in Maxillofacial Region: A Review of Literature

Craniofacial skeleton due to its excellent blood supply can be regarded as an osteoplastic structure that allows mobilization and replacement of bone fragments either as free segments or pedicled on their soft tissues. A plethora of various pathologies occur in the skull base and in deep spaces of the neck. These hidden lesions poses a great surgical challenge for their resection and management. These surgical approaches involves disarticulation of the craniofacial skeleton that aimed at providing increased and more direct exposure of both the pathology and the surrounding structures while avoiding the need to resect the uninvolved structures. Most of the inaccessible tumors of the craniomaxillofacial region had been accessed successfully by various time tested approaches such as the transfacial maxillary swing, lip-split mandibulotomy, and Le Fort I. These approaches provide excellent access, are versatile and flexible allowing a greater degree of modifications whenever required yielding good results. With the advent of low profile miniplates and screws, reestablishment of facial skeletal anatomy has become easier and faster.