Navigation-guided resection of locally advanced midface malignancies. Does it improve the safety of oncologic resection?

INTRODUCTION

Treatment of malignant midface tumors is a surgical challenge with an increased difficulty to obtain free surgical margins. The computer assisted surgery (CAS) and intraoperative navigation (ION) can be very helpful in complex midface resections. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate if the ION could improve the rate of free surgical margins in locally advanced midface malignancies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A retrospective cohort study was performed including 40 patients with a locally advanced malignant midface tumor (T4a/b) surgically treated from September 2016 to September 2022. Patients were divided in two groups, a control group included 20 patients operated on without ION and the study group included 20 patients treated with Navigation assisted surgery. A systematic analysis was performed comparing surgical margins in both groups.

RESULTS

Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type. Oral cavity was the most common primary location. Overall, considering each specimen as an hexahedrium, 240 surgical margins were analyzed. 15 out of 120 margins analyzed in the navigation group (12.5 %) were positive while 30 out of 120 margins analyzed in control group (25 %) were affected (p 0.013). Concerning margin location, the ION group showed less involvement of the upper surface of specimen than in control group (p 0.048).

CONCLUSION

Navigation Assisted Surgery seems to improve the rate of free surgical margins in patients with locally advanced midface malignancies, specially concerning involvement of the superior margin. Further studies are recommended to corroborate these results and its potential influence in survival rates.