Page 108 - Demo

Chapter 4106and 2 when reported adequately. As an unbiased assessment of study endpoints was not possible in the non-comparative studies due to the nature of the subject, this criterion was left out of the analysis. While the item “adequate statistical analysis” is normally only used for comparative trials, it was also used for the included articles to evaluate the quality of analysis between pre- and post-operative results. Study variables and data collectionAfter assessing the eligibility of all studies retrieved, the following data were extracted when available: authors, year of publication, number of patients included, sex, mean age of patients (in years), type of TMJ TJR, time of follow-up (in months), MMO (in mm), and pain and diet measurements using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) measurement. All VAS scores were based on the patients’ subjective evaluation and ranged from 0 to 10. For pain, a score of 0 meant a total absence of pain, while a score of 10 was considered the worst imaginable pain someone could experience. A dietary VAS score of 0 indicated that the patient could only eat liquids, while a score of 10 reflected solid foods.The use of a TMJ prosthesis was considered the predictor variable, and the MMO and VAS pain score were the main outcome variables. The diet VAS score was considered the secondary outcome variable, which was further analyzed to determine the effect of physiotherapy.Several authors were contacted to determine if there was any duplication within their patient groups. As a result, not all data provided by Mercuri et al.(11–13) were included. Also the articles by Gruber et al.(14) and Sidebottom et al.(15) used the same patient population. We decided to use the data provided by Sidebottom et al.(15) at 1 year and at 3 years postoperatively by Gruber et al.(14) to obtain as many patients as possible. Gonzalez-Perez et al.(16) reported on the same patient group twice, albeit one article discussed the stock TMJ TJR, while the other evaluated both the stock and custom(ized) TJR systems.(17) Only the data obtained from the article discussing both patient groups were included. Nikolas de Meurechy NW.indd 106 05-06-2024 10:14