Volumetric Radiological Analysis of Bone Regeneration After Jaw Cyst Enucleation Without Grafting Material: A Retrospective Pilot Study

TL;DR

This study uses 3D imaging to analyze bone healing after jaw cyst removal, finding no significant factors affecting shrinkage rate.

Contribution

The study introduces a 3D volumetric analysis method for evaluating bone regeneration after jaw cyst enucleation.

Findings

No significant correlation was found between shrinkage rate and preoperative volume, age, gender, location, or defect configuration.

A strong positive correlation was observed between preoperative and postoperative volumes.

The study used 3D Slicer® software to isolate and measure bone defect volumes from CBCT scans.

Abstract

Introduction

A jaw cyst is a pathological lesion that can affect both the maxillary and mandibular bones. The treatment of choice is complete surgical removal by enucleation. The healing process after enucleation has often been assessed using two-dimensional methods, but a three-dimensional approach may offer a more accurate evaluation. This study aims to assess whether the preoperative volume of a cyst influences the shrinkage rate after enucleation. It also explores the impact of other variables, such as age, gender, location, and defect configuration, on the shrinkage rate.

Methods

Preoperative and postoperative (after six to 12 months) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans were collected from the Saint Joseph University of Beirut’s database (Beirut, Lebanon). Using the 3D Slicer® software, the scans were superimposed and then using segmentation, both preoperative and postoperative defects were isolated from other structures, and their volume was determined by the software. The shrinkage rate was then calculated.

Results

Twelve patients were selected from the database. The significance threshold was set at 0.05. Statistical analysis revealed no significant correlation between the shrinkage rate and preoperative volume (p > 0.05), age (p > 0.05), gender (p > 0.05), defect location (p > 0.05), or defect configuration (p > 0.05). However, a positive correlation was observed between the preoperative and the postoperative volume (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

While the results did not show a significant correlation between the different parameters and the shrinkage rate, the positive correlation between the preoperative and postoperative volume justifies the lack of correlation between the preoperative volume and the shrinkage rate.

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