Facial growth in the rabbit after autologous grafting in unilateral clefts.

In each of 39 rabbits, a left-sided cleft of the lip and alveolar part of the maxilla were made by removal of the premaxillomaxillary suture. In 5 animals, the cleft was left unrepaired. In 12 animals, an autologous graft from the mandibular symphysis was introduced, and in 12 animals autologous rib-growth cartilage was used for grafting. Lateral photographs of adult skulls in a standardized position were made, and a computerized craniometric analysis of the position of 13 anatomic landmarks in an orthogonal coordinate system was performed. The data from the grafted skulls (12) were compared with those from the control series (20) and subjected to a multivariate analysis, according to Hotelling. Comparison of the grafted adult skulls with 20 unoperated controls and the animals with unrepaired artificial clefts revealed that introduction of rib-growth cartilage leads to an improvement with respect to the growth of the facial skeleton. The initial orientation of the graft in the cleft appeared to be important for its integration in the jaw.