BONE DISTRACTION

If a bone is cut and the two parts are pulled away from each other very slowly, at a rate of about 1mm per day, the defect produced is filled with newly generated bone tissue, resulting in controlled lengthening of the bone with regard both to the desired direction and the final length.

This principle was first applied to long bones in the field of orthopedic surgery, and more recently to the facial bones.

Special apparatuses have been developed (and continue to be improved) enabling the distraction and lengthening of virtually every bone of the facial skeleton.

The techniques of bone distraction have, by virtue of their relative simplicity, made possible the treatment of certain conditions which in the past constituted formidable problems (such as respiratory obstruction caused by micrognathia –small jaw- in the neonate) and greatly simplified the treatment of other conditions such as hemifacial microsomia. Certainly more developments are to be expected in the field of bone distraction.