What is a “Le Fort” Osteotomy? at North Austin Campus

In 1901, the French surgeon Rene Le Fort did a series of experiments to describe how the bones of a human face breaks or “fractures” after injury. With his work, he was able to describe three levels of fracture. We now also use his classification to describe breaks or “osteotomies” in the bone that we carefully make during reconstructive surgery of the face. 

• The lowest level is called the Le Fort 1. At this level the surgeon makes the bone cut just above the upper teeth roots so the upper teeth and surrounding bone can move into a better position. We use Le Fort 1 surgery to treat some patients with cleft lip and palate, and for other types of orthognathic (jaw) surgery to correct a patient’s bite.  We perform a Le Fort 1 surgery through incisions inside the mouth.
• The next highest level is called the Le Fort 2. The surgeon makes the bone cut at the root of the nose through a coronal incision. They then make incisions inside the mouth to connect the upper cuts to include the Le Fort 1 segment. In this way, the entire upper jaw and the nose bones move together. In North Austin we use the Le Fort 2 osteotomy for two of our innovative surgeries, C3DO and LF2ZR. 
• The highest level is called the Le Fort 3. This is done through a coronal incision and separates the face bones immediately below the base of the skull. It includes the Le Fort 2 segment, but also the cheekbones. We use the Le Fort 3 osteotomy in North Austin to treat Crouzon and Pfeiffer syndrome.