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Quality of life, swallowing and speech outcomes after oncological treatment for mobile tongue carcinoma

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Abstract

Background

Surgical treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity (OSCC) has a high impact on patients’ quality of life (QoL), as it variably affects their ability to speak, swallow and their social life. It is still debatable whether free flap tongue reconstruction has significant functional advantages over non-reconstructing techniques after tongue resection.

Methods

A case-control retrospective study was performed involving 14 patients who underwent partial glossectomy with or without floor of the mouth resection for OSCC of the mobile tongue. After resection, seven patients were reconstructed with a microvascular free flap, while seven were closed primarily or healed by secondary intention. All patients were asked to fill four questionnaires investigating their quality of life. As objective evaluation of swallowing, each patient underwent a Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing and a videofluoroscopy.

Results

Questionnaires showed an optimal global quality of life and high functional outcomes in both groups. The objective evaluation of swallowing showed a prevailing difficulty in the oral phase in both groups, without further swallowing impairment. Our data confirm excellent speech, swallowing and life quality in both microvascular reconstruction and non-reconstructive techniques groups.

Conclusions

Acknowledging the limited number of cases, our study showed that speech, swallowing and QoL results are similar both after large tongue defects reconstructed by microvascular free flaps, and small tongue resections managed with non-reconstructive techniques. This further underlines the importance of microvascular free flaps after extended tongue resections.

Level of evidence: Level V, therapeutic study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Surgery, Dentistry, Paediatrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of Verona, Borgo Trento, Italy

    Molteni Gabriele & Marchioni Daniele

  2. Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital of Modena, Largo del Pozzo 71, 41125, Modena, Italy

    Ghirelli Michael, Molinari Giulia, Sassu Alessandro & Presutti Livio

  3. Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences for Children and Adults, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Malagoli Andrea

Authors
  1. Molteni Gabriele
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  2. Ghirelli Michael
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Correspondence to Molinari Giulia.

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Conflict of interest

Molteni Gabriele, Ghirelli Michael, Molinari Giulia, Sassu Alessandro, Malagoli Andrea, Marchioni Daniele and Presutti Livio declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Comitato Etico dell’Area Vasta Emilia Nord, Modena; reference number 303/15) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Gabriele, M., Michael, G., Giulia, M. et al. Quality of life, swallowing and speech outcomes after oncological treatment for mobile tongue carcinoma. Eur J Plast Surg 43, 247–256 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-019-01593-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-019-01593-z

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