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. 2018 Winter;65(4):225-230.
doi: 10.2344/anpr-65-03-04.

Pediatric Dental Surgery Under General Anesthesia: Uncooperative Children

Robert L Campbell  1 , Navin S Shetty  2 , Kaavya S Shetty  3 , Herbert L Pope  2 , Jeffrey R Campbell  4
Affiliations

Pediatric Dental Surgery Under General Anesthesia: Uncooperative Children

Robert L Campbell et al. Anesth Prog. 2018 Winter.

Abstract

Dental treatment of young pediatric patients can be confounded by lack of cooperation for dental rehabilitation procedures and even examination and/or radiographs. With the recent US Food and Drug Administration warning applied to many anesthetic/sedative agents for children less than 3 years old, a retrospective review of general anesthesia (GA) cases from 1 private pediatric dental practice was studied for age, gender, body mass index, anesthetic duration, airway management used, extent of dental surgical treatment, recovery time, and cardiac/pulmonary complications. For the 2016 calendar year, 351 consecutive GA cases were identified with patients aged 2-13 years. Of these, 336 underwent nasal endotracheal intubation. Forty-six of 351 patients (13%) were younger than 3 years. Median anesthesia duration was approximately 1.7 hours for all age groups. Dental treatment consisting of 8-9 teeth including crowns, fillings, and extractions was most frequently encountered. One hundred sixty-eight patients (48%), however, required care for 10-18 teeth. There were no episodes of significant oxygen desaturation. The overall complication rate was 1.1%, with 2 cases of postextubation croup, 1 case of mild intraoperative bronchospasm, and 1 case of intraoperative bradycardia. Complications did not correlate with children being overweight or obese.

Keywords: Brain developmental delay; Endotracheal intubation; General anesthesia; Laryngeal mask airway; Pediatrics anesthesia; Recovery time from anesthesia.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Number of treated subjects by body mass index (BMI).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Number of treated subjects with general anesthesia duration (hours).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Number of treated subjects by number of teeth treated (crowned, filled, or extracted [CFXT]).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Number of treated subjects by time in recovery room (minutes).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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