Survey on complications of Orthognathic surgery among oral and maxillofacial surgeons

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the rates of complications encountered by oral and maxillofacial surgeons who actively perform orthognathic surgeries in Türkiye intraoperative and postoperative periods. Sixty oral and maxillofacial surgeons, 39 male and 21 female, who actively performed orthognathic surgeries in Türkiye were included in this cross-sectional study which was conducted with a survey. A 19-item survey form was created and sent to the participants via the Google Forms platform. The survey included questions about complications in sagittal split ramus osteotomy, vertical ramus osteotomy, subapical osteotomy, genioplasty, LeFort 1 osteotomy, and bimaxillary surgery. In the interpretations of the results of the statistical analyses, p < 0.05 was accepted as the threshold for statistical significance. It was found that 46.7 % of the participants had 1–5 years of orthognathic surgery experience. The most frequently experienced complication in orthognathic surgeries of the mandible was nerve damage. Nerve damage was also the most frequently experienced complication in sagittal split ramus osteotomy and bimaxillary surgery procedures, observed at rates of 82.5 % and 76.8 %, respectively. Condylar resorption, which is complication rarely encountered in the postoperative period, was encountered by 14 participants. The rate of participants with LeFort 1 osteotomy experience was 98.3 %, and the most frequently seen complication in this type of surgery was bleeding at a rate of 69 %. According to the results of this study, oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Türkiye encountered similar complications in orthognathic surgeries. Despite cases of severe complications during and after surgeries of the maxilla and mandible, the low number of these complications makes orthognathic surgeries safe procedures.