Role of Physiotherapy in Rehabilitation of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorder (OPMD) and Oral Cavity Cancers: Systematic Review of Literature

Oral cavity cancer (OCC) treatment is associated with functional defects, morbidity, and significant chances of recurrence. Functional defect in terms of restriction of movement, reduced mouth opening, dysphagia, difficulty in speech results in poor quality of life (QoL). However, with timely physiotherapy majority of the functional loss can be rehabilitated. Training of physiotherapy needs to be started from preoperative time period setting up the mindset for postoperative rehabilitation. Literature lacks the robust data on the effects of physiotherapy for each step of cancer management (pretreatment, perioperative, and postoperative stage). In this systematic narrative review, we lay down the available evidence through extensive search of the available literature on the role of timely physical therapy in improving QoL in oral submucous fibrosis, preoperative and perioperative setting in OCC patients. The reviewed articles also shed light on perioperative role of physiotherapy in tracheostomy care, chest physiotherapy, prevention of deep vein thrombosis, speech, swallowing function, neck, shoulder movement, donor site hand, and leg mobility is highlighted. The review also highlights post-treatment management of trismus, dysphagia, lymphedema, and its recent advances.