Long-term osseous morphologic outcome of surgically treated unilateral coronal craniosynostosis

BACKGROUND: Unilateral coronal craniosynostosis has characteristic osseous dysmorphology that persists into adulthood if untreated. Knowledge of the long-term in vivo osseous morphologic outcome of surgically treated unilateral coronal craniosynostosis patients is limited. The purpose of this study was to define the osseous morphology of adolescent patients who underwent surgery for unilateral coronal craniosynostosis in infancy, compared with both their 1-year postoperative morphology and the morphology of other individuals with untreated unilateral coronal craniosynostosis. METHODS: Three populations of unilateral coronal craniosynostosis were studied: group 1, patients with surgical treatment of unilateral coronal craniosynostosis in infancy who had reached dentoskeletal maturity, ranging in age from 13.5 to 32.7 years (n= 9); group 2, individuals with untreated unilateral coronal craniosynostosis, ranging in age from 1.1 to 21 years (n= 11); and group 3, a subset of group 1 patients 1 year after surgical correction of unilateral coronal craniosynostosis, ranging in age from 1.2 to 2.6 years (n= 6). Data from high-resolution, thin-slice computed tomographic scans of the head were analyzed. Thirty-five reproducible osseous landmarks were recorded as three-dimensional coordinates using ETDIPS imaging software. Nonmidline landmarks were designated as either ipsilateral or contralateral to the synostosis. One researcher performed all landmarking with high intrarater reliability (average error,