The functional intraoral Glasgow scale (FIGS) in retromolar trigone cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
Surgical incisions in the retromolar trigone (RMT) cause injury to underlying structures. The functional intraoral Glasgow scale (FIGS) is used to determine the ability of patients to speak, chew and swallow. FIGS could be used to investigate whether there is a correlation between clinical tumour stage and the function of the oral cavity following surgery in the RMT.


METHODS
FIGS scores for 58 patients speech, chewing and swallowing collected pre-operatively, then at 3 and 20 weeks post-operatively, were used to calculate a total 'Global Oral Disability' value and compared with the clinical tumour size using the TMN staging method.


RESULTS
Patients with RMT cancer who undergo surgical resection can expect a degree of functional impairment which is proportional to the clinical tumour size.


CONCLUSIONS
FIGS is a simple and reproducible way of assessing a patient's functional impairment following surgery in the RMT, especially when using the new global oral disability value.
Goldie
Stephen J
SJ
Department of Human Anatomy, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ,Scotland, UK. stephen_goldie@hotmail.com
Jackson
Mary S
MS
Soutar
David S
DS
Shaw-Dunn
John
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome