Exploring quality of life after oral and maxillofacial robotic surgery

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Created On: 15/06/2024

To investigate the existing scientific data and disparities concerning patient-reported quality of life (QoL) outcomes of TransOral Robotic Surgery (TORS) in patients with oropharyngeal cancer (OPC), recurrent tonsil infections and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).

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Key take away

TransOral Robotic Surgery enhances post-surgery quality of life in oral and maxillofacial domains, suggesting superiority over conservative treatments, with lesion location and therapy characteristics influencing the outcomes.

Background

Method

This scoping review was directed and reported as per the Arksey and O'Malley Methodological Framework, PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews and the AMSTAR-2 guidance document. To retrieve relevant literature, the SCOPUS, PubMed, CINAHL Complete, and APA PsycINFO were explored. These studies were de-duplicated and screened according to the review's eligibility criteria. Articles fulfilling the eligibility criteria were included to assemble and outline the suitable information.

Result

After deduplication and screening of 123 retrieved studies, only 18 original articles were included. Overall, 771 transoral robotic surgeries (TORS) were documented in these articles performed on patients with OPC recurrent tonsil infections and OSA.

Twenty different quality of life (QoL) assessment tools were utilized across these articles (MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory Questionnaire (MDADI) being the most frequently used). The primary aspects of QoL assessed were physical functions concerning swallowing, speech, and salivary functions. TORS was observed to lead to enhanced QoL outcomes in patients with OPC, OSA, and recurrent tonsil infections, particularly within the first year of the surgery. Importantly, factors such as lesion location, involvement of neck dissections, and features of adjuvant therapy appeared to influence QoL outcomes in OPC patients.

Conclusion

TORS demonstrated better QoL within 1 year of its use particularly in the domains related to oral functions (for example, swallowing and speech) than the conservative treatments.