ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Dentistry and Oromaxillofacial Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1616557
Outcomes of Surgical Management for Temporomandibular Joint Ankylosis and Pseudoankylosis: A Retrospective Report of 26 cases
Provisionally accepted
Kristin Michele Kocsis1*
Stephanie Lynne Goldschmidt2
Graham Thatcher3Charles Lothamer4
Lisa Alexandra Mestrinho5- 1Lone Star Dentistry & Oral Surgery for Animals, Alvin, TX, United States
- 2University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States
- 3Capital City Specialty & Emergency Animal Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- 4College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- 5University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
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This study compared the outcomes of segmental mandibulectomy (SM), excisional ostectomy (EO), gap arthroplasty (GA), and interpositional arthroplasty (IA) for surgical management of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis and pseudoankylosis in cats and dogs. Case accrual was solicited from the American Veterinary Dental College members listserv. Inclusion criteria was were diagnosis of TMJ ankylosis or pseudoankylosis confirmed either by helical computed tomography (CT) or cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), surgical treatment, and follow upfollow-up information of 2 weeks for short- term complications, 3-6 weeks for medium- term complications, and >4 months for long- term complications. Twenty-six cases (14 cats and 12 dogs) from 10 institutions were included from 2011 to 2024. Surgical treatment outcomes were categorized with a proposed improvement score classification system based upon percent range of motion (ROM) improvement, requirement of revision surgery, and presence of transient or permanent complications. Excellent, Good, and Fair outcomes were observed across all procedure types, with no Poor outcomes diagnosed. SM resulted in complications in all cases, with no Excellent outcomes. Perioperative complications were rare with only 1 case (hypothermia in a cat) noted. Conversely, postoperative complication rate was 50% (13/26) and included neuromuscular issues (19.2%; 5/26), malocclusion (26.9%; 7/26), callus formation not requiring surgical revision (3.8%; 1/26), and re-ankylosis with the need for surgical revision (15.4%; 4/26). Surgical revision was only required in patients initially treated with SM and GA. This study confirms that Excellent outcomes are possible for cats and dogs affected by TMJ ankylosis and pseudoankylosis, and that IA may have postoperative advantages compared to GA and SM.
Keywords: TMJ, Ankylosis, Pseudoankylosis, Mandibulectomy, Arthroplasty, Ostectomy
Received: 23 Apr 2025; Accepted: 05 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kocsis, Goldschmidt, Thatcher, Lothamer and Mestrinho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kristin Michele Kocsis, Lone Star Dentistry & Oral Surgery for Animals, Alvin, TX, United States
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