Fractured jaw from radiation - What treatment options are there?

Hi Paul,
We put you in your own discussion, which is more relevant to your specific case. All of us on these feeds are patients, therefore we try not to give out medical advice and can only talk from our own experiences.
I for one had my jaw rebuilt using a bone section from my left fibula. When and if you get on that road, then we can talk specifics. In the meantime, aside from a cable channel, what is HBO?

Hi William,

I think it is this. In medical terms, HBO refers to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO). It's a treatment where a patient breathes 100% oxygen inside a pressurized chamber. This increases the amount of oxygen in the blood, which can help the body heal and fight infection.

I recall now. You are correct. It never seems to work well with osteoradionecrosis because once the bone is dead, there is no bringing it back to life. But thanks for the refresher. Never been a fan of initials since my service days.

So far I've been told that if I have the jaw rebuilt I may not need the HBO. Only if they put the plate in.
@hrhwilliam I have a consultation July 3rd with an ENT oncologist at VCU to find out about rebuilding the jaw bone like you had done. What questions should I ask? What can you tell me about your experience? How long were you in the hospital, what was the recovery time, feeding tube etc.
Thank you for starting this discussion here. Hopefully once mine is done I can help others.

Paul, The mandiblectomy has a few requirements. First and foremost, the team that performs it must have experience in this specific surgery and you must enquirer about that experience. After all, this is your life and your well-being, not theirs.
Next, the team will need to do a pre-surgery work up. Facial photos, measuring, scans, and your overall physical health as well. They likely will make a bone graph jig for use during surgery. This process takes a few weeks. Surgery is usually scheduled a couple months after the initial pre-surgery go ahead.
Surgery: Eight hours +/-. A large team. Usually one surgeon removes the bone and tissue graph from either the fibula in the lower leg, the shoulder or clavicle, or the pelvis. They need not only bone but viable tissue connected to the bone graph with a good blood supply. The other primary surgeon is removing the damaged mandible section and securing blood vessels to tie into the bone graph. This is the most critical part of the operation, the microsurgery involved in making the blood supply connection.
Finally, recovery. Usually five days in hospital. Initially you will have a tracheostomy which will be removed after a day or so. You will have a Doppler blood flow sensor and wire to confirm good blood supply to the mandible, which will be removed later in the week. You will have a bandaged leg with a drain. A CAM boot is fitted and will be required for a couple of weeks. You will look like you went five rounds with a pro boxer. You will also be on a feeding tube and OTC pain meds. The tube is removed after two or three weeks.
There is follow up appointments of course. Your primary will fill you in. I was back to work with limited mobility within a few weeks after that. My speech and eating required a bit of practice but within six months I was back to near normal.
You will have a great leg scar for visits to the beach and perhaps a bit of a pirate smile. The trach also leaves a bit of a scar but the jaw surgery scar is often along a typical neck skin fold, so likely noticeable only when you tilt your head back. But remember, scars make much better stories than tattoos.

Thank you so much. This is a HUGE help William. I'll be back in touch as I have more questions.
And you right! Scars do make better stories. No one ever got a tattoo while saving kids from a burning school bus. (That's my scar story and I'm sticking to it lol)

God bless and thank you again.