Sociodemographic and Clinical Determinants of Emergency Surgery for Giant Benign Oral Tumors in Resource-Limited Settings

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Abstract
Background: Early diagnosis of giant tumors of the oral cavity allows appropriate removal, reconstructive surgery, and orthodontics to avoid future suffocation. This work elucidates the sociodemographic and clinical determinants of emergency surgery for giant benign oral tumors in resource-limited settings.Methods: This is an ambispective, descriptive study involving patients with giant benign tumors of the oral cavity that were operated on by INTERPLAST-Germany teams during their six visits to Goma from 2015 to 2019 and in 2022. JASP 0.95.4.0 software was used for the analyses.A Kaplan-Meier curve was used to assess the risk of recurrence, and the significance threshold was p=0.05.Results: 16 patients were collected and operated on for giant tumors of the oral cavity. The mean age was 33.7±8,8years, with a male predominance (13 cases). Every patient had jaw abnormalities, and 6.3% of patients experienced suffocation due to the tumor, but all had trouble chewing. Primary treatment involved complete tumor excision with magnifying loupes, ensuring healthy margins and reconstructive procedures. There was a correlation between the risk of postoperative recurrence of the giant suffocating tumor (p = 0.032 and Pearson's r = 0.537). The Kaplan-Meier curve indicates that the risk of oral giant tumor recurrence in patients with suffocation remains high from the median 34th month onwards (p = 0.002)Conclusion: Early diagnosis of an oral cavity tumor before it grows extensively can prevent future suffocation. Several alarming clinical and paraclinical situations can influence an urgent surgical decision, but multidisciplinarity remains a significant factor. Despite the urgency in the field of oncology, complete tumor removal and reconstructive surgery remain common practices, even when resources are limited. Therefore, developing a treatment protocol would be an asset in making urgent surgical decisions.