Prospective study of postoperative sensory disturbances after surgical treatment of mandibular fractures

Introduction: This present study's purpose is to evaluate the degree of paresthesia and recovery of inferior alveolar nerve in patients with mandible fractures who underwent surgical treatment. Material and methods: Nineteen patients were evaluated (27 hemimandibles) at six different times: preoperative (T1), postoperative 1 week (T2), postoperative 1 month (T3), postoperative 3 months (T4), postoperative 6 months (T5), and postoperative 1 year (T6). Subjective and objective methods were used for this evaluation. Results: The results were analyzed using likelihood ratio chi-square test for the hypothesis of no association between indicators of sensitivity and responses to the questionnaire, and the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test for equality hypothesis. All objective tests showed a statistically significant worsening in sensitivity at T2 (p < 0. 0001) and a significant improvement after T4 (α < 0. 05). The subjective tests showed an association with the objectives tests, and improvement in sensitivity after T4 (p < 0. 0001) was noted. Discussion: The first postoperative week is the period in which there are major changes with respect to sensitivity, and after 3 months postoperatively, the recovery reaches its apex with little difference observed after this period. In this research 100 % of the patients analyzed recovered all sensibility until T6. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.