Früh- und Spätergebnisse nach konservativer frühfunktioneller Extsionstherapie bilateraler Kiefergelenkfortsatzfrakturen (English shop)

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This retrospective study provides a statistical evaluation of the conservative treatment of bilateral condylar process fractures by means of early functional extension therapy, as applied at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Göttingen between 1980 and 1999 inclusive, and assesses its efficiency with regard to early and late results. The study covers 149 treatment cases, of which 53 patients additionally underwent a voluntary postoperative written survey. The indications for surgical fracture management discussed in the international literature were examined for their validity. The evaluation of our treatment results in relation to the indications for surgical therapy of condylar process fractures discussed in the literature showed that there is no significant difference in treatment outcome with regard to the indications discussed. Thus, no significant difference in treatment outcome could be established as a function of age, dental status, degree of dislocation, level of the fracture or accompanying facial skull fractures (p < 0.05). The results of the present study are of far-reaching clinical and practical relevance, since it could be shown that conservative early functional extension therapy can also be applied without difficulty in the case of the described limitations discussed in the literature, and leads to good long-term clinical and functional results, while sparing the patient the risks of a surgical intervention. In our experience, a sufficiently high hypomochlion in the distal region and the avoidance of rigid intermaxillary fixation, as well as early functional movement therapy, are indispensable for a functional restitutio ad integrum.