Clinical study of the malar bone fracture. Part 2: Usefulness in diagnosis of the malar bone fracture and its classification using computed tomography.

In the malar bone fracture, conventional radiographic methods has the limitation to analyze the pattern of displacement in an anteroposterior direction of the face. Thirty-four patients with malar bone fractures were examined with the biplane computed tomography (CT), i. e. the axial CT combined with the coronal CT, to analyze the displacement of the fragments.Malar bone fractures were classified into five groups according to the location and direction of the fragments.It is possible to establish a more complete three-dimensional pattern of displacement in malar bone fractures using the biplane CT.