Plastic and reconstructive surgery
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Craniofacial anomalies, such as Apert's and Crouzon's syndromes, are presumed to be related to premature growth arrest of cranial base growth sites. However, premature growth arrest at cranial vault sutures in animals appears to play a causative role in the development of cranial deformities characteristic of single-suture, or simple, craniosynostosis in humans. To study the possible causative role of cranial vault and other (interface) suture stenoses on the development of craniofacial deformity, a vault suture and an interface suture between the cranial vault and facial skeleton were simultaneously immobilized. ⋯ All animals underwent serial radiographic cephalometry to document growth effects in the cranial vault, cranial base, and facial skeleton. Application of adhesive resulted in statistically significant (p less than 0.05) reduction in growth at the coronal and frontonasal sutures. This was accompanied by an overall significant reduction in neurocranial vault length during the first 30 days of development.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)