An evidence-based surgical algorithm for management of odontogenic keratocyst

The effective management of odontogenic keratocyst (OKC) remains a subject of interest and confusion in the oral and maxillofacial surgery literature. Currently, there is a lack of consensus regarding the most appropriate treatment for patients with OKC. Of the various treatment options available, no modality to date has been shown to demonstrate a zero or near-zero recurrence rates except wide resection with clear margins. With the prevailing dearth of evidence based surgical protocols for the management of patients with OKC in the literature, this study aims to present a surgical algorithm, based on meta-analysis results, that hopefully will be beneficial in enhancing treatment of patients with this condition. Also, new meta-analysis was done to compare between modified Carnoy’s solution (MCS) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in respect of recurrence rate of OKC. Using parameters like size, lesion type (primary or secondary), syndromic or solitary nature of the lesion, presence of cortical perforations, and locularity; we present a decision tree, to aid treatment planning and help attain the least chance of recurrence in the management of the OKC. There was very low-quality evidence indicating that application of 5-FU, after enucleation and peripheral ostectomy of OKCs, significantly lowered recurrence rate when compared to MCS (RR = 0.087, CI: 0.017 to 0.436, P value = 0.003).