A comparative evaluation: Oral leukoplakia surgical management using diode laser, CO2 laser, and cryosurgery

BACKGROUND: The comparatively evaluate the three surgical treatment modalities namely cryosurgery, diode and CO2 laser surgery in terms of healing outcomes on the day of surgery, first and second week post operatively and recurrence at the end of 18 months was assessed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty selected patients were divided randomly into three groups. Each group comprising of ten patients were subjected to one of the three modalities of treatment namely cryosurgery, diode laser or CO2 laser surgery for ablation of OL. Obtained data was analyzed using mainly using Chi-square and Anova tests. RESULTS: Study showed statistical significant differences (p > 0.05) for evaluation parameters like pain, edema and scar. The parameters like infection, recurrence, bleeding showed no statistical significance. Pain was significantly higher in CO2 laser surgery group as compared with diode laser group. There was no recurrence observed at the end of the 6 months follow up period in all the three study groups. CONCLUSIONS: Observations from the study highlights that all three surgical modalities used in this study were effective for treatment of OL, and the overall summation of the results of the study showed that laser therapy (CO2 and Diode) seems to offer better clinically significant results than cryotherapy. Key words:Oral premalignant lesion, leukoplakia, cryosurgery, CO2 laser surgery, diode laser surgery.