The Role of Adjunctive Chemical Solutions in the Treatment of Odontogenic Keratocysts: A Scoping Review

Odontogenic keratocysts (OKC) are aggressive cysts with a high recurrence potential. Treating them with surgical enucleation procedures alone is associated with high recurrence rates; therefore, additional or supportive treatment approaches, such as peripheral osteotomy, cryotherapy, and chemical solutions, are warranted. The objective of the present review was to evaluate the existing literature on the efficacy of chemical approaches, such as Carnoy’s solution (CS), in preventing recurrence after the enucleation of OKC. An electronic search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases to find articles published from January 2010 to December 2022 by using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms “Odontogenic Keratocyst” “Carnoy’s Solution,” “Treatment,” and “Enucleation.” Articles published in the English language were selected for the study. The PICOS criteria (population: patients with non-syndromic OKC with histopathological diagnosis and a minimum follow-up of six months; intervention and comparison: enucleation followed by adjunctive chemical therapy and standard procedure; outcome: recurrence rates; study design: retrospective and prospective studies, randomized controlled trials, and case series involving at least 10 cases of OKC) were employed. Studies involving syndromic (nevoid basal cell carcinoma) cases were excluded from the search. Seventeen studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and the majority of them were retrospective studies, with a few case series. OKC was found more frequently in the mandible, with a recurrence rate of 11%, when treated with CS following enucleation after four years of follow-up. Modified Carnoy’s solution (MC) was used in two studies. The mean follow-up period was 44 months. Based on our findings, adjuvant therapy using a chemical approach following enucleation is a more effective and beneficial modality for the treatment of OKC.