Assessment of the quality of life in maxillectomy patients: A longitudinal study

Abstract

PURPOSETo longitudinally assess the quality of life in maxillectomy patients rehabilitated with obturator prosthesis.MATERIALS AND METHODSThirty-six subjects were enrolled in the span of 16 months, out of which six were dropouts. Subjects (age group 20-60 years) with maxillary defects, irrespective of the cause, planned for definite obturator prosthesis, were recruited. The Hindi version of European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Head and Neck version 1 of Quality of Life Questionnaire was used before surgical intervention and one month after definitive obturator. Questionnaire includes 35 questions related to the patient's physical health, well being, psychological status, social relation and environmental conditions. The data were processed with statistical package for social science (SPSS). Probability level of P<.05 was considered statistically significant.RESULTSThe quality of life after rehabilitation with obturator prosthesis was 81.48% (±13.64) on average. On item-level, maximum mean scores were obtained for items problem with teeth (1.87 ± 0.94), pain in mouth (1.80 ± 0.92), trouble in eating (1.70 ± 0.88), trouble in talking to other people (1.60 ± 1.22), problems in swallowing solid food (1.57 ± 1.22) and bothering appearance (1.53 ± 1.04); while minimum scores were obtained for the items coughing (1.17 ± 0.38), hoarseness of voice (1.17 ± 0.53), painful throat (1.13 ± 0.43), trouble in having social contacts with friends (1.10 ± 0.40) and trouble having physical contacts with family or friends (1.10 ± 0.31).CONCLUSIONObturator prosthesis is a highly positive and non-invasive approach to improve the quality of life of patients with maxillectomy defects.

Quality of life and problems associated with obturators of patients with maxillectomies

“…The sample size in this study was small because maxillary cancer is a rare tumour with high mortality. In fact, the number of samples in our study is within the range of 10–42 patients in other studies investigating patients who have undergone maxillectomy [12, 14, 23, 27–29]. The fact that the proportions of male and female patients in this study were equal may in part be attributable to the small sample size.…”

An implant-retained obturator – a case study

“…1 Obturators can be supported and retained by the patient's remaining hard and soft tissues, but whilst the presence of some remaining teeth can facilitate the prosthodontic rehabilitation of maxillectomy patients, for those patients that are edentulous the treatment may be more challenging. 2 The difficulty in managing these cases is not only dependent upon the number of natural teeth remaining, but the size and classification of the defect, presence or lack of undercut within the oral cavity/defect, decreased muscular control and reduced sensation.…”

Understandability of Speech Predicts Quality of Life Among Maxillectomy Patients Restored With Obturator Prosthesis

“…2,5,[8][9][10][17][18][19][20][21] It has been proposed that QoL parameters should be assessed in addition to conventional clinical criteria 21 to provide the clinician a choice from a variety of validated questionnaires 22 and include them in the daily routine outcome parameter. 17 Studies in the literature on QoL in patients with maxillectomy and rehabilitation with obturators 5,7,8,10,11,14,16,21,23 have shown that the correlation between obturator function (Obturator Functioning Scale [OFS]) and QoL 5,8,10,11,16,23 can be influenced by clinical factors, such as type of tumor and stage of disease, extent of the ablative defect, postoperative radiation therapy, number and condition of remaining maxillary teeth, and demographic and other social variables. 5,8,14,16,23 To the best of the authors' knowledge, studies of this kind of the Brazilian population are rare.…”

“…17 Studies in the literature on QoL in patients with maxillectomy and rehabilitation with obturators 5,7,8,10,11,14,16,21,23 have shown that the correlation between obturator function (Obturator Functioning Scale [OFS]) and QoL 5,8,10,11,16,23 can be influenced by clinical factors, such as type of tumor and stage of disease, extent of the ablative defect, postoperative radiation therapy, number and condition of remaining maxillary teeth, and demographic and other social variables. 5,8,14,16,23 To the best of the authors' knowledge, studies of this kind of the Brazilian population are rare. 6 After maxillectomy, patients can develop problems related to functional performance of eating and talking 5,8,11,16 and xerostomia related to radiotherapy.…”

“…The authors hypothesized that low functional performance 25 and a low salivary flow rate 4,7,14,16,23 would negatively influence the QoL and obturator function of these patients. The specific aims of the study were to associate clinical features and demographic variables with overall QoL and overall obturator functioning.…”