Treatment of mandibular angle fractures using two noncompression miniplates.

PURPOSE: To evaluate treatment with two 2.0-mm noncompression miniplates for patients with angle fractures.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-seven consecutive patients with 69 fractures of the mandibular angle were treated by open reduction and internal fixation using two noncompression miniplates and 2.0-mm self-threading screws placed through a transoral incision with transbuccal trochar instrumentation. No patient was placed into postsurgical maxillomandibular fixation or elastics.

RESULTS: Overall, 19 fractures (28%) experienced complications requiring secondary surgical intervention. Most of the complications were postoperative infections requiring surgical drainage (n = 17) and subsequent hardware removal (n = 16). Of the 17 infected fractures, 11 were healed at the time of hardware removal and required no further treatment. Five were still mobile and required a period of maxillomandibular fixation for healing. One of the fractures did not heal and required bone grafting.

CONCLUSION: The use of two noncompression miniplates was found to be relatively easy, but resulted in an unacceptable rate of infection in our patient population when used for treatment of fractures of the mandibular angle.