Background & objective: There was few report about the protection of oral function of microwave coagulation in treatment of cancer of floor of the mouth. This study was designed to systematically clarify the principle, operation, treatment of the primary cancer and lymph nodes, efficiency, function of the mouth, complications and indications of the microwave coagulation in treatment of the cancer of the oral cavity. Based on this, the significance of the two special methods and prevention of bleeding during the cause were discussed.
Methods: Ninety-six cases with cancer of oral cavity who were treated with microwave coagulation were analyzed retrospectively. The survival rates and the recurrent rates of those with the coagulated tissue be resected or unresected, and of the positive margin group and the negative margin group were compared for analyzing the complications and prevention of them.
Results: The difference of the survival rates of those whose coagulated tissue pathologically positive and negative was insignificant (Log Rank = 0.70, P = 0.4033), and the differences of the recurrent rates of the primary site, secondary site and the uncertain site of them were also insignificant (chi 2 = 1.65, 0.837, 0.003; P = 0.684, 0.36, 0.959). The overall survival rate of the patients with negative margin was better than those of with positive margin (Log Rank = 6.08, P = 0.0136). However, the difference of the recurrent rates of them was insignificant (chi 2 = 0.327, P = 0.567). The total complication rate of 96 patients was 9.6% and all of them were acceptable. The complication rate of those with the coagulated tissue be resected was lower than that of the unresected (P = 0.013).
Conclusion: Ligating the tongue artery, resecting the coagulated tissue, and packing the wound margin were effective methods to prevent the bleeding. The pathological result of the coagulated tissue could not be used to predict the prognosis. It is best to hold enough treatment range for microwave coagulation. Application of microwave coagulation in treatment of cancer of oral cavity has the advantage of less and slight complications.