The Accuracy of Computer-Assisted Surgical Planning in Predicting Soft Tissue Responses After Le Fort I Osteotomy: Retrospective Analysis

Purpose:Mismatch between preoperative planning and surgical outcome in maxillofacial surgery relate to on-table replication of presurgical planning and predictive algorithm inaccuracy: software error was hereby decoupled from planning inaccuracy to assess a commercial software. The hypothesis was that soft tissue prediction error would be minimized if the surgical procedure was replicated precisely as planned and is independent of the extent of bone repositioning. Materials and Methods:Cone-beam computed tomography scans of 16 Le Fort I osteotomy patients were collected at Boston Children's Hospital. Preoperative and postoperative models of bone and soft tissue were constructed and the maxilla repositioning was replicated. Each model was subdivided into 6 regions: mouth, nose, eyes, and cheeks. Soft tissue prediction (performed using Proplan CMF-Materialise) for each patient was compared with the relative postoperative reconstruction and error was determined. PResults:Le Fort I segment repositioning was replicated within 0.70 +/- 0.18 mm. The highest prediction error was found in the mouth (1.49 +/- 0.77 mm) followed by the cheeks (0.98 +/- 0.34 mm), nose (0.86 +/- 0.23 mm), and eyes (0.76 +/- 0.32). Prediction error on cheeks correlated significantly with mouth (r=0.63, P< 0.01) and nose (r=0.67, P< 0.01). Mouth prediction error correlated with total advancement (r=0.52, P=0.04). Conclusions:ProPlan CMF is a useful outcome prediction tool; however, accuracy decreases with the extent of maxillary advancement even when errors in surgical replication are minimized.