# Availability of Primary Closure for Resection of Oral Cavity Cancer
## 3 Results
### Factors Associated with Primary Closure (Tables 2-4)  
We investigated the associations between age, gender, stage, neck dissection, operation time, lesion site, and other factors to determine the patient factors associated with primary closure compared to patients with flap reconstruction. The average age of patients with primary closure was 65.25 years, with no statistically significant difference (\(p\) = 0.779). Among primary closure patients, there were 11 women and 5 men, and there was no statistically significant difference between gender and primary closure (\(p\) = 0.107). Of the 16 total patients, eight underwent surgery with selective neck dissection, one with modified neck dissection, and seven without neck dissection. No statistically significant difference was found between neck dissection and primary closure (\(p\) = 0.307). Statistically significant differences were observed between staging and primary closure, with 13 stage I and three stage II patients using primary closure (\(p\) = 0.046). Statistically significant differences were identified between operation time and primary closure, with an average of 4.02 h (\(p\) = 0.015). In patients with primary closure, the distribution of lesion sites was as follows: tongue (5), lower gingiva (3), palate (3), upper gingiva (2), the floor of the mouth (2), and buccal mucosa (1); however, no significant difference was noted in primary closure by lesion site (\(p\) = 0.120). The average period of hospitality for patients who underwent primary closure was 13.4 days, compared to 26.7 days for those who underwent flap surgery. This difference was statistically significant (\(p\) = 0.0003). Tables 3 and 4 show the results of Three-way ANOVA for operation time and Period of hospitalization, respectively. Interactions were verified for the presence or absence of neck dissection, reconstruction method ( flap or primary closure), and stage. For each result, \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l} \hline
**Clinical Characteristic** & **Value** & **SD** \\ \hline Age [years old, mean, (range)] & 64.7 (15–87) & 14.8 \\ Gender (\%) & & \\ Male & 43 (50.6\%) & \\ Female & 42 (49.4\%) & \\ Neck dissection (\%) & & \\ Surgery with SND & 53 (62.4\%) & \\ Surgery with mRND & 4 (4.7\%) & \\ Surgery without neck dissection & 28 (32.9\%) & \\ Stage (\%) & & \\ I & 26 (30.6\%) & \\ II & 18 (21.2\%) & \\ III & 17 (20\%) & \\ IV & 24 (28.2\%) & \\ Operation time (h, range) & 7.15 (1.1–18.45) & 4.1 \\ Lesion site (\%) & & \\ Upper gingiva & 17 (20\%) & \\ Lower gingiva & 33 (38.8\%) & \\ Tongue & 13 (15.3\%) & \\ Buccal mucosa & 8 (9.4\%) & \\ Floor of the mouth & 7 (8.2\%) & \\ Palate & 7 (8.2\%) & \\ Biopsy result & & \\ Squamous Cell Carcinoma & 60 (70.6\%) & \\ Muccopidermoid Carcinoma & 6 (7.1\%) & \\ Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma & 3 (3.5\%) & \\ Verrucous Carcinoma & 5 (5.9\%) & \\ Melanoma & 3 (3.5\%) & \\ Others & 8 (9.4\%) & \\ Follow-up [month, mean (range)] & 33.9 (2–110) & 18.2 \\ Recurrence (\%) & 19 (22.4\%) & \\ Period of hospitalization & 24.2 (5–100) & 16.3 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Clinical characteristics of 85 Patients. only the reconstruction method had a statistically significant effect on the operation time and hospitalization period. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l} \hline \hline  & **Df** & **SS** & **MS** & **F** & \(\mathbf{p}\) \\ \hline Neck Dissection (ND) & 1 & 472,644,184 & 472,644,184 & 3.6333 & 0.0646435 \\ Reconstruction & 1 & 2,331,294,720 & 2,331,294,720 & 17.921 & 0.0001518 * \\ Method (RM) & 1 & 110,204,244 & 110,204,244 & 0.8472 & 0.3634855 \\ ND\(\times\)RM & 1 & 103,550,227 & 103,550,227 & 0.796 & 0.3782159 \\ ND\(\times\)Stage & 1 & 7,604,504 & 7,604,504 & 0.0585 & 0.8103238 \\ RM\(\times\)Stage & 1 & 29,660,224 & 29,660,224 & 0.228 & 0.6358957 \\ ND\(\times\)RM\(\times\)Stage & 1 & 2,208,208 & 2,208,208 & 0.017 & 0.8970644 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Df = degree of freedom; SS = Sum of squares; MS = mean squares; F = variance ratio.
* Statistically significant difference (\(p<0.05\)).  
\end{table}