A randomized controlled clinical trial assessing the surgical outcomes of two incision methods for open reduction and internal fixation of mandibular body fractures.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to compare the surgical access and post-operative outcomes of two intraoral incisions used to approach mandibular body fractures.Methods: The clinical trial involved 60 patients from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) at Rama Dental College hospital and Research Centre Kanpur (U.P.) with mandibular body fractures randomly assigned  a control or study group. The control group underwent the usual vestibular incision, while the study group received a crevicular incision with vertical release. The impact of incision design on post-surgical outcomes such as swelling, trismus, paraesthesia, wound healing, and gingival recession was analysed using non-parametric tests with SPSS 22.0 software. Continuous variables between groups and at different time points were compared using the Mann-Whitney and Friedman tests, respectively. Proportions between groups were compared with the Chi-square test, and pairwise comparisons were performed using Dunn's test with Bonferroni correction.