ABSTRACT

Fractures occurred in patients in whom the thickness of the pterygomaxillary junction was less than or equal to 3.6 mm. There were no massive bleeds or other complications such as skull base fractures in either group. The Trimble technique therefore can be regarded as a safer method, especially regarding unwanted fractures in the pterygoid plates. At the beginning of the 1990s, a group from Canada published two papers on the separation of the maxilla and pterygoid plate using no chisel or osteotome at all. In their first article a group of 500 patients was presented in which this technique was used. There were no fractures of the pterygoid plates, and they experienced no other major complications. Complications associated with Le Fort I osteotomy, such as haemorrhage from the sphenopalatine, descending palatine and maxillary arteries, arteriovenous fistulae, skull base fracture, cranial nerve injury, blindness, ophthalmic complications, and internal carotid artery injury, have all been reported in the literature.