A patient who underwent inferior alveolar nerve reconstruction with nerve conduit after mandibulectomy

Abstract

If the inferior alveolar nerve is resected by surgery for a mandibular tumor, the perception of its dominant area will be permanently lost. When we perform nerve reconstruction, autologous nerve grafting is usually performed, but there is a fault that we produce new neuropathy in the nerve-donor site. The nerve conduit, which is an artificial material, begins to be used for nerve amputation and deficiency, but there is no report about mandibular tumors. The patient was a 20-year-old man with mandibular ameloblastoma. We performed hemimandibulectomy, mandibular reconstruction with a free iliac bone graft, and inferior alveolar nerve reconstruction with a nerve conduit. The postoperative course was uneventful. Neurosensory disturbance of the mental nerve improved 5 months after surgery, and approximately normally status was recovered after 10 months. Currently, 2 years have passed since the operation, and there are no obvious abnormalities.