Therapeutic alternatives in the management of osteoradionecrosis of the jaws. Systematic review

Abstract

Background: To systematically review the literature, comparing the healing of osteoradionecrosis (ORN) among the therapeutic alternatives: Surgical, pharmacological and combined. Material and Methods: The review was organized according to the PRISMA protocol with regards to the following PICO question: Patients with ORN of the jaws (P=Patient); all interventions reported (I = intervention); between all therapies (C=Comparison); healing of lesions (O=outcome). Results: Surgical treatment was the most common choice (46.3%) followed by pharmacological treatment, exclusively (25.9%) or combined (26.9%). Treatment exclusively by surgical intervention seems to be most effective option, with 51.2% of the lesions healed, OR for healing of 5.7 (CI95% 1.9-16.9, p=0.002). Only 1 case (0.9%) corresponded to low level laser therapy. Conclusions: It seems clear that early intervention with conservative surgical combined with pharmacological methods improves the prognosis of ORN.