Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the masticatory function of the patients who under went surgery for tongue carcinoma at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital.
The patients (n=23) were divided into 4 groups as follows ; A. partial glossectomy (n=13), B. oral hemi-glossectomy (n=4), C. hemi-glossectomy (n=3) and D. subtotal glossectomy (n=3).
Evaluating masticatory efficiency by the spectrophotometric method using ATP-G (Adenosine Triphosphate Granules), the absorption values of groups A, B, C and D were 1.55±0.60 (mean±S.D.), 1.42±0.24, 0.97±0.49 and 0.74±0.30, respectively.
These results show that the wider extent of the resection becomes, the more disturbance of mastication becomes.
Ingestive function was evaluated by questionnaire with a listing of 31 different types of foods and classified into grades from 1 to 6. The rates of the grade 6 (best one) patients in group A, B, C and D were 11/13, 3/4, 1/3 and 1/3, respectively.
In all patients, the correlation between ATP absorption values and questionnaire results were recognized. Therefore, this indicated that ATP-G absorption method is useful to evaluate the masticatory function objectively.
