Survival of temporomandibular total joint replacement: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Prosthetic total joint replacement has been incorporated as a treatment for complex temporomandibular disorder; however, the survival of those devices is unknown.

To assess the survival rate of the total temporomandibular joint (TMJ) prothesis and their main causes of failure.

An electronic search was conducted in eight databases until March 2023. Prospective studies reporting the survival rate of total TMJ prothesis with a minimum follow-up of 12 months were included. Studies with partial TMJ prostheses or those no longer available on the market were excluded. Two reviewers assessed the individual risk of bias using the JBI Systematic Reviews for Quasi-experimental studies tool. Meta-analysis of proportions was conducted to summarise the survival rate, using 95% confidence intervals (CI). The GRADE approach assessed the certainty of the body of evidence.

Data from 320 patients were collected from six prospective studies. The number of prothesis losses varied from none to four. All studies presented sources of bias related to follow-up description of the patients. The follow-up time varied from 12 months to 21 years. In most of the studies, prosthesis failure occurred within the first 6 months after surgery due to infection. The overall survival of total TMJ protheses was 97% (95% CI: 95%; 99%), with low heterogeneity (I²  = 29%) and a very low certainty of evidence.

TMJ total prosthesis apparently is a safe procedure with a high survival rate and the evidence is very uncertain and presents important sources of bias.