Abstract :
Statement of problem: Malnutrition amongst cancer patients is a frequent finding. Patients face difficulty in mastication and deglutition due to defects in maxilla during post-surgical period.
Objective: Obturators help in restoring the function of maxillectomy patients. Therefore, it is important to assess their nutritional status of these patients after prosthodontic rehabilitation.
Materials and methods: Total 38 patients were enrolled in the span of one year, out of which 17 were dropouts. Surgical, intermediate and definitive obturators were fabricated as per requirement. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) Performa and various blood bio chemical parameters like serum albumin, globulin, total protein, serum sodium, potassium, calcium, alkaline phosphatase and haemoglobin were used to assess the nutritional status. Assessments were made at three different time intervals; just before maxillectomy, 3 months after maxillectomy and 3 months after the delivery of definitive obturator.
Results: Nutritional status of the patients decreased three months after maxillectomy but increased three months after delivery of definitive obturator in comparison to baseline values. On application of one way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni correction, the mean difference of the MNA score of maxillectomy patients at three months after rehabilitation with definitive obturator was found to be statistically significant as compared to that obtained 3 months after maxillectomy and before maxillectomy (P
Keyword :
Oral cancer, Definitive obturator, Mini Nutritional Assessment