[Conservative versus surgical therapy of unilateral fractures of the collum mandibulae--anatomic and functional results with special reference to computer-assisted 3-dimensional axiographic registration of condylar paths].

A clinical, radiographic and computer-assisted axiographic follow-up was carried out on 60 patients who had been treated for unilateral subcondylar fractures. These were patients of the Department of oral, maxillofacial and facial plastic surgery of the Medical Faculty of the University of Technology in Aachen, Germany. After surgical reduction of the condyle with fixation by osteosynthesis where results were positive, 27 patients exhibited a shortening of the condyle paths on the side operated on by up to 16.4%. Although conservative therapy produced slighter straightening of the condyle with more or less strongly marked condylar deformations in two-thirds of the cases, functionally more positive results were obtained by markedly slighter limitation of the condyle paths on the traumatized side. These results would appear to indicate operative therapy of unilateral subcondylar fractures in the case of luxation fractures, condylar dislocation in excess of 50 degrees, and in those cases where intermaxillary immobilization is not feasible. In the remaining cases, conservative treatment is preferred, due to it showing functionally more positive results.