These 20 studies were published over a range of 21 years (1996 to 2017) and provide cumulative data on 1905 implants placed into autogenous bone grafts in H&N cancer patients with both benign and malignant tumours being reported. The exact patient number for this intervention within some of the studies was unclear as a result of the studies reporting on implant rather than patient number or there was an inability to identify which population received dental implants to identify patient numbers. One study (Chiapasco et al.) included reported on patients under 18 years old (two patients in total); however, these patients and their data could be removed from the analysis.

Implants were placed into both vascularised and non-vascularised autogenous bone grafts, with a number of donor sites being reported. (Tables 2 and 3) These implants were placed in a variety of intra-oral sites with implants placed into autogenous bone grafts within the mandible reported in eight studies and bi-maxillary placement in nine studies, and in three studies, it was unknown where the implant fixtures were placed other than that they were placed into autogenous bone grafts (Linsen et al., Fenlon et al., Ch’ng et al.). There were no studies where implants were placed solely in the reconstructed maxilla.

Radiotherapy to the autogenous bone graft/implant site was reported in 16 studies. Two studies (Wang et al., Zou et al.) reported that radiotherapy was not carried out on the study population and in 1 study (Yerit et al.) bone graft sites were not irradiated. One study (Chiapasco et al. 2008) failed to report whether radiotherapy was carried out or not on the study population. Of 20 studies included in the systematic review, only 7 studies reported on outcomes related to implant survival in irradiated autogenous bone grafts (Barrowman et al., Fenlon et al., Ch’ng et al., Buddula et al., Fierz et al., Teoh et al., Burgess et al.).