Application of Simulated Three Dimensional CT Image in Orthognathic Surgery

Kim, Hyung Don; Yoo, Sun Kook; Lee, Kyoung Sang; Park, Chang Seo

Abstract

In orthodontics and orthognathic surgery, cephalogram has been routine practice in diagnosis and treatment evaluation of craniofacial deformity. But its inherent distortion of actual length and angles during projecting three dimensional object to two dimensional plane might cause errors in quantitative analysis of shape and size. Therefore, it is desirable that three dimensional object is diagnosed and evaluated three dimensionally and three dimensional CT image is best for three dimensional analysis. Development of clinic necessitates evaluation of result of treatment and comparison before and after surgery. It is desirable that patient that was diagnosed and planned by three dimensional computed tomography before surgery is evaluated by three dimensional computed tomography after surgery, too. But Because there is no standardized normal values in three dimension now and three dimensional Computed Tomography needs expensive equipments and because of its expenses and amount of exposure to radiation, limitations still remain to be solved in its application to routine practice. If postoperative three dimensional image is constructed by pre and postoperative lateral and postero-anterior cephalograms and preoperative three dimensional computed tomogram, pre and postoperative image will be compared and evaluated three dimensionally without three dimensional computed tomography after surgery and that will contribute to standardize normal values in three dimension. This study introduced new method that computer-simulated three dimensional image was constructed by preoperative three dimensional computed tomogram and pre and postoperative lateral and postero-anterior cephalograms, and for validation of new method, in four cases of dry skull that position of mandible was displaced and four patients of orthognathic surgery, computer-simulated three dimensional image and actual postoperative three dimensional image were compared. The results were as follows. 1. In four cases of dry skull that position of mandible was displaced, range of displacement between computer-simulated three dimensional images and actual postoperative three dimensional images in co-ordinates values was from -1.8 mm to 1.8 mm and 94% in displacement of all co-ordinates values was from -1.0 mm to 1.0 mm and no significant difference between computer-simulated three dimensional images and actual postoperative three dimensional images was noticed(p>0.05). 2. In four cases of orthognathic surgery patients, range of displacement between computer-simulated three dimensional images and actual postoperative three dimensional images in co-ordinates values was from -6.7 mm to 7.7 mm and 90% in displacement of all co-ordinates values was from -4.0 to 4.0 mm and no significant difference between computer-simulated three dimensional images and actual postoperative three dimensional images was noticed(p>0.05). Conclusively, computer-simulated three dimensional image was constructed by preoperative three dimensional computed tomogram and pre and postoperative lateral and postero-anterior cephalograms. Therefore, potentiality that can construct postoperative three dimensional image without three dimensional computed tomography after surgery was presented.