Trismus surgery and microsurgical reconstruction after oral cancer treatment

Introduction: Trismus after oral cancer is frequent, with scarce evidence of surgical release treatment in these patients.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the results of trismus release and free flap reconstruction after oral cancer treatment, establish immediate and long-term results, and detect factors that influence outcome.

Materials and methods: A retrospective study was performed. Preoperative, intraoperative, and follow-up interincisal distances were measured. The intraoperative, long-term gain, and postoperative loss were calculated. Analysis of the long-term results with the preoperative and intraoperative variables was performed.

Results: Surgical release immediately increased the interincisal distance by 29.25 mm. Sixty-six percent of this gain was lost due to trismus recurrence, giving a long-term interincisal gain of 9.90 mm. Worse results were observed in patients with previous high-stage tumors, maxillectomies, skin resections, and previous radiotherapy. The were no significant differences in the results depending on the type of release or reconstruction performed, with the exception of the reconstruction with the sural flap, which presented worse results. Patients with trismus of ≤10 mm could have more range for improvement after this surgery.

Conclusions: The results of this surgery are moderate in the long term due to high trismus recurrence in spite of aggressive treatment.