EVALUATION OF A FULLY DIGITAL, IN-HOUSE VIRTUAL SURGICAL PLANNING WORKFLOW FOR BIMAXILLARY ORTHOGNATHIC SURGERY

Abstract

The advantages of virtual surgical planning (VSP) for orthognathic surgery are clear. Previous studies have evaluated in-house VSP, however, few fully digital, in-house protocols for orthognathic surgery have been studied. The authors developed a fully digital, in-house VSP workflow for orthognathic surgery and assessed its accuracy in a prospective cohort of 52 patients who underwent bimaxillary orthognathic surgery. The predictor variables were VSP using the established protocol and the surgical sequence (mandible-first or maxilla-first). The outcome variables were the mean 3D distance error, as well as mean error and mean absolute error in the left-right (x axis), superior-inferior (y axis), and anterior-posterior (z axis) dimensions. In general, the largest contributor to mean 3D distance error was deficient movement in the anterior-posterior direction (z axis). This finding was felt to be clinically valuable for treatment planning purposes when using a fully digital, in-house VSP workflow.