Osteoradionecrosis of the mandible is a rare but serious complication in irradiated oral cavity cancer patients. Handling requires multidisciplinary intervention and treatment is both medical and surgical and in some cases with hyperbaric oxygen as adjunctive treatment.

Purpose
– Denne fokusartikel søger at belyse den nuværende evidens for anvendelse af hyperbar oxygen til forebyggelse og behandling af osteoradionekrose i mandiblen.– This focus article seeks to highlight the current evidence for the use of hyperbaric oxygen in preventing and treating osteoradionecrosis of the mandible.

Material and methods – Literature review focused on English and Danish language literature from Cochrane, Embase and PubMed databases.
– Litteraturgennemgang med fokus på evidens for behandlingen i engelsk- og dansksproget litteratur fra Cochrane, Embase og PubMed databaserne.

Results – The literature consists mainly of case-control studies and case reports. The double-blinded randomized study from 2004 could not show a positive effect of the treatment.
– Litteraturen udgøres hovedsageligt af casekontrolstudier og kasuistikker. Det dobbeltblindede randomiserede studie fra 2004 kunne ikke vise en positiv effekt af behandlingen.

Conclusion – Should we defend maintaining hyperbaric oxygen as part of a standard treatment regimen? Further studies are needed to clarify the evidence.
– Skal man forsvare at opretholde hyperbar oxygen som en del af et fast behandlingsregime ved osteoradionekroser i mandiblen, må det afklares, hvorvidt der er evidens herfor på baggrund af randomiserede, prospektive studier.