China Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery ›› 2016, Vol. 14 ›› Issue (3): 244-248.

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Application of surgical navigation in treatment of Eagle's syndrome

DOU Geng1, ZHANG Yu1, TIAN Lei2   

  1. 1.Student Brigade, The Fourth Military Medical University. Xi'an 710032; 2.Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University. Xi'an 710032, Shannxi Province, China)
  • Received:2015-07-08 Online:2016-06-20 Published:2016-07-04

Abstract: PURPOSE: To evaluate the feasibility, accuracy and clinical effect of intra-operative navigation for resection of elongated styloid process (ESP) in Eagle's syndrome. METHODS: Twelve patients with Eagle's syndrome with clinically and radiologically established diagnosis of ESP were enrolled. Preoperatively, the patients' Dicom data of skulls were input into the navigation system workstation to mark the ESP and make surgical plan in advance. During surgery, the intraoperative navigation was performed on all patients to excise the ESP accurately through both intraoral (without tonsillectomy) and extraoral approach following the operative plan. Postoperatively, the amount of bleeding, duration of operation and hospitalization and the length of resected SP were measured and compared with those through traditional styloidectomy without assistance of surgical navigation. A questionnaire and a simple visual analogue scale (VAS) was also used to assess patient's satisfaction and the surgical effect 3 months after surgery using SPSS 19.0 software package. RESULTS: In total, 17 styloid processes from 12 patients were precisely resected by intraoral parapharyngeal approach and small cervical approach with aid of surgical navigation. No severe surgical complications occurred in all patients. The length of resected styloid processes was (21.93±14.26) mm. The average amount of bleeding and duration of operation were (22.50±8.54) mL and (40.35±11.81) min, respectively, which are lower than traditional operation without aid of surgical navigation. VAS analysis showed that discomfort in all patients were relieved, while 10 patients' symptoms were improved obviously and 2 patients had some improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The high accuracy of surgery, lesser amount of bleeding, shorter duration of surgery and hospitalization, minimal complications and improved subjective symptoms certify that surgical navigation is a more effective and minimally invasive surgical procedure to treat Eagle's syndrome.

Key words: Elongation of styloid process, Surgical navigation, Oral and maxillofacial surgery, Computer aided surgery, Parapharyngeal route

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