Interforaminal implant placement in oral cancer patients: during ablative surgery or delayed? A 5-year retrospective study

In a retrospective study, two mandibular prosthetic rehabilitation strategies supported by implants in oral cancer patients were evaluated: implants placed in the non-resected edentulous symphyseal area during ablative surgery (DAS implants); or at a later stage (postponed (P) implants). Medical files of patients from two head-neck oncology groups from 2000 to 2005 were screened for study inclusion. DAS protocol was used in one group and P protocol in the other. After a 5 year follow-up of 261 edentulous patients with oral cancer in the second group, P implants were placed in 27 patients to support an overdenture. Of the 249 edentulous patients in the first group, 82 patients were given an implant supported overdenture using the DAS implant protocol. Regarding implant loss, no statistically significant differences were seen between the DAS and P implants. In the DAS group, more patients benefited from an implant-supported lower overdenture (39 versus 11%, respectively), and they received their overdenture on average 20.0 months sooner (sd = 11.01, p < 0.001) after ablative surgery. 17.1% of DAS implants and 4.6% of P implants were never loaded due to tumour and patient related factors including unfavourable implant soft tissue, tumour recurrence near the implant, or radiotherapy induced trismus.