Effectiveness of Spacers in Brachytherapy With 198Au Grains for Patients With Buccal Mucosa Cancer

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Figure 1.
Example of the spacers used in study. The spacer was made of silicone rubber material for dental impressions to a thickness of 1 cm. A 4-mm-thick lead plate was inserted inside the spacer. The spacer was designed to be inserted between the buccal mucosa and the upper and lower gingiva, and fixed with the upper and lower teeth.
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Figure 2.
Three-dimensional construction frontal (F) and lateral (L) computed tomographic scans of the three study cases with and without a spacer. Arrowheads indicate the spacers. In case 3, the left side of the removable denture was dislocated and tilted (arrow). Therefore, most ¹⁹⁸Au grains were located posterior to the spacer (lateral view).
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Figure 3.
Box-and-whisker plots of the distance between ¹⁹⁸Au grains, ¹⁹⁸Au grain and the maxilla, and ¹⁹⁸Au grain and the mandible without and with a spacer. The use of a spacer significantly increased the distance between ¹⁹⁸Au grains in cases 2 and 3 (p=0.0283 and p=0.0103), between ¹⁹⁸Au grains and the maxilla in cases 1 and 2 (p=0.016 and p=0.034), and between ¹⁹⁸Au grains and the mandible in case 1 (p=0.045). *Significantly different at p<0.05.