The progress of post-treatment restricted mouth opening in oral and maxillofacial malignant tumor patients

Abstract

: Oral and maxillofacial malignant tumor seriously threaten the physical and mental health of patients, especially advanced malignant tumor requiring a comprehensive sequence of surgery-based treatment, resulting in facial deformity, difficulties with chewing, dysphagia and asophia. Among them, trismus (restricted mouth opening) is one of the most common complications after treatment of oral and maxillofacial malignant tumor. In severe cases, they may even suffer from trismus and eating difficulties, finally leading to malnutrition and even cachexia. Therefore, it not only affects the quality of life of the patients and even endangers their lives, but also brings heavy social and economic burden. How to effectively prevent and treat posttreatment trismus is a clinical problem which is easy to be ignored by oral and maxillofacial surgeons and needs to be solved urgently. In recent years, restricted mouth opening (trismus) after post-treatment of oropharyngeal, nasopharyngeal and other head and neck malignant tumors have been widely studied, but restricted mouth opening after comprehensive treatment of oral cancer has been neglected. We therefore conducted a systematic review with 3 aims: (I) to clear the definition of restricted mouth opening and trismus; (II) to identify epidemiology and pathogenesis of restricted mouth opening or trismus; and (III) to summarize the methods of interventions or treatment of oral and maxillofacial malignant tumor patients with restricted mouth opening or trismus.