Minimally invasive genioplasty: an observational study

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the feasibility of a minimal invasive genioplasty (MIG) technique combining a limited vertical incision, endoscopy, and a piezotome. Methods: A total of thirteen patients who underwent primary genioplasty procedures under general anesthesia were evaluated. The feasibility of the method was reported in terms of total surgery time, the total amount of intra-operative blood loss, neurosensory dysfunction, pain sensation, infection, and patient satisfaction using the FACE-Q Chin scale. Results: We observed the mean surgery time of 46.08 ± 5.33 min with a statistically significant p-value of 0.157. The ANOVA test value for mean neurosensory testing score (NST) was calculated as 5.95 (p = 0.006) for the right side and 7.64 (p = 0.017) for the left side. The paired t-test value of the mean pain score was 117.98 (p < 0.001) and showed no significant pain after 1 week. The quality of the osteotomy was deemed good in 12 patients with less intra-operative blood (ranged from 7.7 to 46.2%). Conclusion: Based on these results, this minimally invasive technique for genioplasty is a promising approach to perform a chin osteotomy and should be an alternative to the conventional genioplasty technique.