EVALUATION OF THE PLEURAL DISRUPTION FOLLOWING COSTOCHONDRAL GRAFT HARVESTING FROM FOURTH TO SEVENTH RIBS OF ADULT MALE CADAVERS

Costochondral and rib grafts have long been used for reconstruction of lost condyle. donorsite morbidity has less been under investigation and researched. pleural disruption pneumothorax andugly scars are among the donor site complications. this study aims to determine the rate of pleuraldisruption following costochondral graft harvesting from the 4th to the 7th ribs of right and left ribsfrom recently expired cadavers; so maxillofacial surgeons and thorax surgeons could spare high riskribs and minimize post- operative complications. this interventional study was performed on 80 ribsfrom 32 adult male cadavers with the recorded death being within the last 24 hours and all free ofpulmonary diseases. we harvested 80 costochondral grafts from 32 cadavers and the incidences ofpleural disruption were examined for the 4th to the 7th ribs of right and left side by means of spsssoftware (10 harvestings from each rib). the incidences of pleural disruption were 17.5% while theright fifth rib had the highest risk (30%) and the left fifth rib had the lowest risk (0%). for the fourth toseventh ribs there were no significant differences between the ribs for pleural disruption, (p = 0.95)either in the right or the left ribs (p = 0.24). pleural disruption was more probable to exist under thechondral part of costochondral grafts (ccg) rather than the osseous part. valsalva maneuver was moreuseful than the naked eye for diagnosis of pleural disruption.