Abstract

Pierre Robin sequence as a symptom triad of micrognathia, glossoptosis, and cleft palate results in upper airway obstruction and feeding problems. If mild, it is often managed in the prone position. When positional treatment fails, however, surgical intervention such as tongue-lip adhesion, tracheostomy, and mandibular distraction osteogenesis is mandatory to relieve airway obstruction. There has been growing interest in the application of distraction osteogenesis for the management of craniofacial abnormalities. The mandibular distraction osteogenesis to newborns may prevent the airway obstruction, decrease the potential tracheostomy, and reduce the likehood of orthognathic surgery after growth. We experienced an infant with Pierre Robin sequence who showed mandibular hypoplasia, glossoptosis, incomplete cleft palate, intermittent cyanos is, depression of the chest, and respiratory difficulty associated with airway obstruction. We treated the airway obstruction by tongue-lip adhesion at 2 weeks of age, and treated the mandibular retrognathism and depression of the chest byusing internal mandibular distraction osteogenesis at 7 month of age. The mandible moved forwardly, the upper airway space was enlarged, and the antero-posterior distance of the mandible was elongated after the mandibular distraction. Mandibular distraction osteogenesis may be a promising technique to avoid the need of tracheostomy and orthognathic surgery, and to correct airway obstruction in infants with congenital craniofacial malformation.