New method of jaw reconstruction for oral cancer patients
7/25/2006 London, England staff British Dental Journal (2006); 201, 75. doi: 10.1038 Surgeons from the Mayo Clinic (USA) claim they have developed a promising new process for mandible reconstruction following removal of oral cancer. The new method, which the investigators tested in rabbits, used distraction osteogenesis after tumor removal surgery to restore the missing portion of a patient's jaw. With distraction osteogenesis, the surgeon made a cut at one of the remaining ends of the patient's jawbone. As the break healed, the first phase of growth, soft tissue, appeared. The surgeon then stretched the pliable soft tissue under the tension of a device to fill in the gap in the patient's jaw. Within 24 hours of completing the stretching process, physicians started administering radiation therapy to the mandible to decrease the likelihood of cancer recurrence. As the soft tissue healed, it hardened into bone. The investigators found that the radiation therapy, which they had suspected could interrupt the bone consolidation prior to the study, had no ill effects on the bone's healing. “Patients with large oral tumors should have radiation therapy after surgery to decrease the chances of cancer recurrence,” says Dr Daniel Price, M.D., Mayo Clinic ear, nose and throat surgery resident and lead study investigator. “Radiation needs to be completed 13 to 14 weeks after the patient's cancer diagnosis to achieve maximum effect. As these patients require mandible reconstruction after tumor removal, we wanted to find a way to get both the radiation and the reconstruction done quickly [...]