RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Surgical inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) reposition techniques offer an alternative approach to implant-based rehabilitation in patients with severe mandibular atrophy The aim of this systematic review, was to determine the complications associated with the technique and to determine which of two variants (lateralization or transposition) is less invasive. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An electronic search was conducted in databases complimented by a manual search to identify clinical studies investigating complications derived from these surgical techniques. Only studies of adult humans, published in English during the last seven years were included. The initial search located 78 articles, of which seven were included in analysis on the basis of the following characteristics: four investigated inferior alveolar nerve lateralization (IANL), one inferior alveolar nerve transposition (IANT), and two investigated both reposition techniques. RESULTS: This review included data from 289 patients who were recruited for lateralization (N=319) or transposition surgery (N=33) making a total of 352 reposition procedures. Five patients (1.73%) suffered persistent damage to the IAN at the end of the follow-up periods. The overall implant survival rate was 99.26% of a total of 817 implants. The most common complications were neurosensory problems, mandibular fracture, infection, implant loss, and insufficient anatomical reconstruction of the atrophic mandible; neurosensory complications (hypoesthesia, paraesthesia, and hyperesthesia caused by traumatic damage to the nerve) were the most prevalent. CONCLUSIONS: Lateralization of the inferior alveolar nerve would appear to be less invasive as it produces lower percentages of persistent neurosensory disorders (1.56%) than transposition (12.12%). Nevertheless, both techniques offer a viable approach to implant placement in edentulous atrophic mandibles, obtaining predictable clinical and radiological results after 5 years implant loading.