Functional Outcomes After Surgical Resection of Tongue Cancer; A Comparative Study Between Primary Closure, Secondary Intention Healing and Flap Reconstruction

The purpose of the study was to assess and compare the quality of speech and swallowing between three reconstruction options (primary closure—group A, secondary intention healing—group B and flap reconstruction—group C), in small to moderate sized onco-surgical defects of oral tongue. 47 patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria during the study period, of which, 15 belonged to group A, 16 belonged to group B, 16 were in group C. Speech and swallowing assessment was done using Speech Intelligibility Assessment score and MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory, respectively. The above tests were administered pre-operatively, 1 month and 6 months post-operativey in all the study participants. The average scores of speech intelligibility at 1 month were 66.13% (±19.96), 70.04% (±12.28) and 37.31% (±11.29) for groups A, B and C respectively. Similarly, average long term scores for speech intelligibility in these three groups were 72.7% (±17.72), 83.3% (±12.78) and 52.8% (±11.74) respectively. With regards to swallowing the composite scores at 1 month were 73.67 (±13.69), 68.31 (±16.06) and 41.81 (±5.44), and at 6 months were 83.2 (±10.24), 79.31 (±12.29) and 57.88 (±7.37), respectively for groups A, B and C. All the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Healing by secondary intention offered the best functional outcome in terms of speech intelligibility, and primary closure offered best swallowing outcomes in operated cases of oral tongue. This trial has been registered with the Clinical Trials Registry—India in December 2018 (CTRI Reg. No: CTRI/2018/12/016803).