CASE REPORT   

Chirurgia 2020 February;33(1):65-9

DOI: 10.23736/S0394-9508.19.04955-6

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Syngnathia: a rare case of maxillo-mandibular fusion in an adult patient

Marco FRISCIA ¹, Paola BONAVOLONTÀ ¹, Antonio ARENA ¹ ✉, Umberto COMMITTERI ¹, Fabio MAGLITTO ¹, Giovanni SALZANO ¹, Giorgio IACONETTA ², Luigi CALIFANO ¹

¹ Unit of Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Department of Neurosciences, Odontostomatological and Reproductive Sciences, Federico II University, Naples, Italy; ² Unit of Neurosurgery, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

Syngnathia is a congenital bony fusion of the mandible to maxilla involving the pediatric age. It is a rare condition that may comprise soft tissue or hard tissues. According to the literature, to our knowledge, 29 cases have been reported during childhood. This clinical condition is usually discovered immediately after birth, since the child is not able to open the mouth, and is unable to feed himself adequately. Generally the surgical treatment consists of multiple procedures to release bony fusion, or debride adhesions during the first few days of life. When the lock involves only the soft tissue, the treatment consists in removal the mucosal synechia, by performing an intraoral approach. To our knowledge, herein we describe the first case of unilateral syngnathia in adulthood. A 27-year-old African male was referred to our Department of Maxillo-Facial Surgery of the Federico II University of Naples in January 2008. The patient reported to have been victim of a direct trauma to the face as a result of an assault when he was child, during the second civil war in Sudan. He was hit with a blunt instrument on the right maxillo-zygomatic region. In conclusion, as far as we know, this is the older patient affected by syngnathia with a suspicion of traumatic etiology, and none of the patients reported in the literature had a traumatic etiology.

KEY WORDS: Cleft palate; Temporal bone; Mandible; Maxilla; Temporomandibular ankylosis