Three-year follow-up of oral leukoplakia after neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser surgery

Abstract

Oral leukoplakia is a relatively common lesion with a significant proportion of cases changing into cancer. Since most leukoplakias are asymptomatic, the primary objective of treatment must aim at the prevention of such malignant transformation. The main objectives of the study are to observe (1) the efficacy, safety and acceptability of the neodymium:yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser in the management of oral leukoplakia; (2) the nature of postoperative complications, if any, associated with laser ablation, and (3) the 3-year prognosis of oral leukoplakia treated with laser. Twenty-eight patients with histologically proven leukoplakia were treated with Nd:YAG laser. From this study, we observed that the patients treated with Nd:YAG laser had only mild to moderate pain, swelling and restricted mouth opening, which peaked between 72 h and 1 week. In a majority of the patients the healing was prolonged, to a maximum of 5 weeks, and there was no clinical evidence of scarring in 26 out of 28 cases. In this study we achieved a cure rate of 92.86% in a 6-month period. Further follow-up after 3 years yielded almost the same result, except that one patient was not available for follow-up. We concluded that Nd:YAG laser is an effective device in the management of oral leukoplakia, which is one of the major pre-cancerous lesions in our country.