Abstract A randomized, blind and prospective clinical trial was conducted to compare two clinical rehabilitation protocols in patients submitted to orthognathic surgery, during the first 60 days after surgery. Pain, edema, mandibular movement, masticatory efficiency and quality of life were evaluated. Nineteen (19) patients were separated into control and experimental groups. The control group consisted of 10 patients followed by oral and maxillofacial surgeons and submitted to a rehabilitation protocol that involved active and passive mouth opening exercises. The experimental group had 9 patients and followed the surgeons’ protocol, in addition to an Early Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol performed by speech therapists, and involving specific motricity exercises and lymphatic drainage. The Student’s t-test was applied to compare the results, and the Fisher’s exact test of independence, to analyze the quality of life and the masticatory efficiency variables. The statistical significance was set at 5% (p < 0.05) for all the tests. The results showed that the ERAS protocol made a positive difference in pain perception in the first 14 days. However, it did not improve the other variables. Although many variables showed no significant difference, it was concluded that the surgeons can delegate patient rehabilitation to qualified professionals, so that they can optimize their postoperative clinical time.

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar, in vitro, a resistência à flexão da fixação interna, através do uso de parafusos absorvíveis e metálicos, na osteotomia sagital do ramo em hemimandíbulas de carneiros. Os parafusos foram inseridos como "lag screw", com configuração em "L" invertido e o conjunto submetido ao teste de resistência à flexão. As médias da carga e do deslocamento do pico e da carga final do Grupo I foram de 18,45 kgf, 8,19 mm e 14,38 kgf, e do Grupo II de 16,67 kgf, 6,73 mm e 13,98 kgf, respectivamente. Os resultados foram submetidos à análise estatística pelo teste t de Student e pela análise de correlação de Pearson. Os grupos exibiram diferenças estatisticamente não significativas, indicando a viabilidade de ambos para a osteossíntese em osteotomias sagitais do ramo mandibular.

The aim of this study was to evaluate, in vitro, the bending strength of internal fixation with absorbable and metallic screws in mandibular ramus sagittal split osteotomy in sheep hemimandibles. The screws were inserted as lag screws, with an inverted "L" configuration, and the set was submitted to bending strength tests. The load and displacement of the peak and final load averages were, respectively, 18.45 kgf, 8.19 mm and 14.38 kgf for Group I, and 16.67 kgf, 6.73 mm and 13.98 kgf for Group II. The results were submitted to statistical analysis by Student’s t test and by the Pearson correlation analysis. The groups showed no statistically significant differences, indicating the feasibility of both for osteosynthesis in mandibular ramus sagittal split osteotomies.