PHARYNGEAL AIRWAY VOLUME FOLLOWING ...

skeletal tissues, soft tissues, and the pharyngeal airway
than lateral cephalograms and are more assessable than
traditional CTs.
Presently, little information is known regarding the
effects of orthognathic surgery on the pharyngeal airway
volume. Utilizing the Hitachi MercuRay machine, Sears 47
evaluated volumetric changes in 20 patients who received
orthognathic surgery to correct skeletal and dental
dysplasias. Two patients received MMA plus advancement
genioplasty whereas the remaining patients received
different types of orthognathic surgery that involved one
or two-jaw procedures. Pharyngeal airway volume was
examined at 1 month (T1) and 6-8 months (T2) post-surgery
and compared to the pre-surgical values (T0). For each
group of patients, the total airway volume did not
significantly change following surgery. 47
When all surgical groups were evaluated together, the
total airway volume significantly increased immediately
following surgery, but there was not a significant change
between T0 and T2. Nasopharyngeal volume significantly
increased at both short-term and long-term follow-ups.
Oropharyngeal volume increased in the short-term, but there
was no significant change between T0 and T2 or between T1
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