Pain, function, and psychologic outcome before, during, and after intraoral tumor resection.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to determine the quality of life of patients with respect to pain before, during, and after ablative intraoral tumor surgery.


METHODS
The Bochum Questionnaire on Rehabilitation was used to determine 147 items including the morphologic, functional, and psychosocial aspects of rehabilitation. One thousand six hundred fifty-two of 3,500 patients (47.2%) (413 women and 1,239 men) completed the questionnaire. The statistical investigation was carried out using 2-sample (independent) and paired (dependent) t tests.


RESULTS
Pain and the functional impairment of chewing and swallowing are the most important parameters before treatment. Immediately after surgical treatment, other variables, such as speech intelligibility and mobility disorders in the head, neck, and shoulder regions, became more apparent. Pain was reported in the shoulder region in 38.5% and in the neck in 34.9% of patients after surgery. The temporomandibular joint was painful in 20.1%, the oral cavity in 18.7%, and the face in 8.2%. Pain was described by 7.4% of patients in other regions of the head. Seventy-five percent of 1527 patients were not taking pain medications during the investigation. The rate of physiotherapy consequently applied after surgery was less than 10%.


CONCLUSIONS
Quality of life after ablative intraoral surgery is not greatly affected by pain. Because functional disorders play the dominant role in the impairment of postoperative quality of life, functional reconstruction, using microvascular techniques, and early rehabilitation, including physiotherapy, should be intensified.
Gellrich
Nils-Clauidus
NC
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Freiburg, Hugstetterstrasse 55, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany. gellrich@zmk2.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
Schimming
Ronald
R
Schramm
Alexander
A
Schmalohr
Dorothea
D
Bremerich
Andreas
A
Kugler
Joachim
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology; D005157:Facial Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery; D009068:Movement; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013065:Speech Intelligibility / Q000502:physiology; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D000700:Analgesics