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70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)
Joint Meeting mit der Skandinavischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

12.05. - 15.05.2019, Würzburg

Mastication-After-Craniotomy (MAC) – first results of the assessment of postoperative oral health related quality of life (SmallMAC study)

Mastication-After-Craniotomy – erste Ergebnisse der Fragebogenstudie zur Erfassung der postoperativen Mundgesundheit nach neurochirurgischem Zugang

Meeting Abstract

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  • presenting/speaker Mortimer Gierthmühlen - Ruhr Universität Bochum, Universitätsklinikum Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bochum, Neurochirurgische Klinik, Bochum, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Skandinavischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Würzburg, 12.-15.05.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2019. DocV101

doi: 10.3205/19dgnc116, urn:nbn:de:0183-19dgnc1168

Published: May 8, 2019

© 2019 Gierthmühlen.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Objective: Many lateral approaches to the brain require the temporary and partial dissection of the temporal muscle. Atrophy of the muscle is frequently observed after several months or years, which can be both cosmetically disturbing and functionally impairing. Some patients complain of limited mouth opening and pain during mastication. Although the respective craniotomies – pterional, frontolateral and temporal – are among the most frequently used approaches in neurosurgery, a systematic assessment of the postoperative complaints has never been performed so far. In a pilot study “Mastication After Craniotomy” (SmallMAC) we evaluate the subjective impairment of patients after pterional, frontolateral or temporal craniotomy using the standardized international Oral-Health-Impact-Profile (OHIP) 14 score sheet.

Methods: The OHIP-G14 is the German version of the internationally standardized questionnaire for oral health and asks the patients to assess their situation over the past 7 days. All answers are given a score from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). In total, 60 patients will be included who undergo brain surgery through a pterional, frontolateral or temporal approach for a benign intracranial process (e.g. aneurysm or meningioma). The questionnaire is answered right before surgery (baseline), 3 months and 15 months after surgery.

Results: We will present the results of the postoperative assessment of 40 patients 3 months after surgery. The postoperative OHIP-14 score is significantly higher than preoperatively. The results of this ongoing study reveal that patients suffer from pain and functional impairment after partially dissecting the temporal muscle during a standard lateral neurosurgical approach.

Conclusion: The OHIP-G14 score sheet seems to be a suitable questionnaire to assess the functional oral health related impairment after neurosurgical approach through the temporal muscle. The final results of the SmallMAC-study will reveal whether further efforts are necessary to improve the postoperative masticatory functional impairment in neurosurgical patients.