Abstract
It has been reported that oral and feeding/swallowing functions are impaired in oral cancer patients due to postoperative organic damage. However, in clinical practice, qualitative evaluation such as “the patient is able to ingest food without aspiration” is often used as an indicator of functional recovery after surgery, so it is often unclear how much function has decreased postoperatively and whether function has recovered with maxillofacial prosthetic treatment. Therefore, our hospital has developed a flowchart for the precise examination of pre- and postoperative oral and feeding/swallowing functions in order to: （1） precisely examine whether or not oral and feeding/swallowing functions deteriorate before surgery, （2） set a target value for functional recovery after surgery, and （3） quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of maxillofacial prosthetic treatment.
Before the flowchart was used, the presence/absence of examinations and training goals were determined based on clinical senses, but with the use of the flowchart, measurement of oral function, feeding and swallowing function, and nutritional evaluation became possible in all patients with oral cancer, and target values for functional recovery were clarified. We believe that further improvement is needed to quantify clinical sensation in the future.
