Bone formation with free periosteal grafts in reconstruction of congenital maxillary clefts.

In a series of 23 patients free grafts of tibial periosteum have been used in the reconstrlction of 26 congenital maxillary clefts. In 23 (88.5%) of these clefts, rapid bone formation occurred at the transplantation site overbridging the bone defect in 20 (77%) of the clefts. The permanent value of these bone bridges has not yet been solved. Nevertheless, this operation has demonstrated the strong osteogenic capacity of free periosteal grafts suggesting their use also in other fields, where bony fusion or reconstruction of other defects is needed.