title: Tongue pressure in patients with tongue cancer resection and reconstruction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Assessment of tongue function following tongue reconstruction is important to evaluate patient status. To assess tongue function in patients who had undergone tongue reconstruction, the surgical team used a simple, hand-held tongue pressure measurement device to measure tongue power.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tongue power of 30 patients (25 males, 5 females; average age: 53.6±15.0 years) was calculated using a hand-held tongue pressure measurement device, six months postoperation. The defects were classified into minimal glossectomy (MG) (n=8), near-half partial glossectomy of the mobile tongue (PG) (n=5), hemi-glossectomy (HG) (n=4), more than half partial glossectomy of the mobile tongue (SG-MT) (n=7), and subtotal glossectomy (SG) (n=6). As seen in other tongue assessments, a simple articulatory test, food evaluation, and speech intelligibility assessment were also performed; resulting correlations were statistically calculated using tongue pressure values.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The tongue pressure values were 94.0±14.5% in MG, 48.5±13.2(a) % in PG, 40.4±18.7(a) % in HG, 19.3±7.7(a,b) % in SG-MT, and 15.3±5.6(a,b) % in SG (a: <0.05 vs. MG, b: <0.05 vs. PG). The Pearson r was 0.77, 0.67, and 0.74 when correlated with simple articulatory test, food evaluation, and speech intelligibility assessment, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tongue pressure measurement in patients with tongue cancer resection and reconstruction facilitated determination of patients' tongue function status.
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan. Electronic address: a.hamahata@cancer-c.pref.saitama.jp.
authors.forename: Atsumori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamahata
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan.
authors.forename: Takesi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beppu
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shirakura
authors.affiliation: Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan.
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hatanaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaki
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Saitama Cancer Center, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saitou
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakurai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005927:Glossectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011312:Pressure; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology*; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Surgical flaps; Tongue carcinoma; Tongue pressure