Springs have been used clinically in craniofacial surgery since 1997. Following release of a synostosed suture, an expansile stainless steel spring is placed across the area of suture release, usually perpendicular to the orientation of the suture. This applies a liner external force to the cranial plates and skull remodeling occurs rapidly over subsequent weeks. We hypothesize that most of the immediate shape change occurs at the sutural junctions between adjacent plates of bone. Further we hypothesize that the vector of growth across these sutures may be quite different to the usual vector of growth at these sutures.
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