The functional intraoral Glasgow scale (FIGS) in retromolar trigone cancer patients.

BACKGROUND

Surgical incisions in the retromolar trigone (RMT) cause injury to underlying structures. The functional intraoral Glasgow scale (FIGS) is used to determine the ability of patients to speak, chew and swallow. FIGS could be used to investigate whether there is a correlation between clinical tumour stage and the function of the oral cavity following surgery in the RMT.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

FIGS scores for 58 patients speech, chewing and swallowing collected pre-operatively, then at 3 and 20 weeks post-operatively, were used to calculate a total 'Global Oral Disability' value and compared with the clinical tumour size using the TMN staging method.

RESULTS

Patients with RMT cancer who undergo surgical resection can expect a degree of functional impairment which is proportional to the clinical tumour size.

DISCUSSION

FIGS is a simple and reproducible way of assessing a patient's functional impairment following surgery in the RMT, especially when using the new global oral disability value.