What is craniofacial surgery?
We can define craniofacial surgery as the surgical treatment of all deformities affecting the head and face, whether congenital or acquired. In the surgical management of craniofacial deformities, the type of surgical intervention will depend fundamentally on the type and severity of the deformity that the patient has at that moment and his condition at the time of the intervention.
What are the syndromes included in this area and what do they consist of?
Craniofacial surgery is indicated for the surgical treatment of congenital malformations that affect the shape of the head and face, such as Ticher Collins syndrome, Apert syndrome, Crouzon’s disease, craniosynostosis, hypertelorism or increased distance between the two orbits. In the management of traumatic or oncologic sequelae that affect the shape of the head and face and require a combined craniofacial approach for their management. The treatment of certain tumors located, for example, at the base of the skull that require a transfacial or combined craniofacial and facial approach. The treatment of cleft palate and cleft lip. And the treatment of sequelae, usually of traumatic origin, such as missing bones in the head requiring complete surgical reconstruction to restore form and function.
What does the treatment consist of and how is the operation performed?
The different surgical techniques used in craniofacial surgery depend on the type of pathology we are going to handle. All of them are complex treatments that require a multidisciplinary management in which several specialists are involved, such as neurosurgeons, maxillofacial surgeons or plastic surgeons. We perform a pre-surgical study by means of imaging tests and stereolithographic models that artificially reproduce the patient’s craniofacial pathology, which we will perform before taking the patient to the operating table. The intervention is always performed under general anesthesia and normally in the first two years of age in the case of malformative pathologies affecting children. The treatments will generally consist of reconstructing the deformity that has been created, in the case of the skull reconstructing again the shape of the cranial bones, or in the case of the face reconstructing again the shape of the face to restore both aesthetics and function. In the case of cleft lip and cleft palate treatment, the treatment is performed in the first year of age. Cleft lip, or cleft lip, is generally treated in the first months of life, between six weeks and nine months, and cleft palate is treated approximately in the first year of age.
After the operation, what care should patients follow?
After surgery, patients are transferred to the intensive care unit where they will receive all the necessary care, both nursing and medical, until they are transferred to the ward, thus improving their recovery and avoiding complications that may arise after the operation. Once discharged, most of these patients are followed up from a few months to a few years, during which time they may receive other secondary interventions to improve both their esthetics and their function, in order to avoid possible complications derived from the pathology initially treated or from the surgical technique used. Family members are always given home care guidelines, such as wound care, the type of dietary guidelines that these patients should follow, especially in the case of lip and palate clefts, and the periodic check-ups that are performed by the entire multidisciplinary team that has operated on them, whether the maxillofacial surgeon or the neurosurgeon. Always bearing in mind that these treatments sometimes last for years and, generally, until adulthood, thus ensuring that the patient is as satisfied as possible with the result, both aesthetic and functional.