Clinico-statistical observations of patients undergoing oral surgery under general anesthesia at The University of Tokyo Hospital over 5 years (1992-1996)

A total of 570 patients who received general anesthesia for oral and maxillofacial surgery at The University of Tokyo Hospital over 5 years from 1992 to 1996 were statistically examined. The number of patients per year tended to increase, and patients between 20 and 29 years old comprised 22.1% (Table 2). There were more males (325 cases) than females (245 cases) (Table 1). Cheiloplasty and palatoplasty were the most common operations (208 cases. 36.5%) (Table 4). In most cases (421 cases, 73.9%), atropin sulfate and hydroxyzine cloride were administrated in muscle just 1 hour before the general anesthesia for preventing excessive secretion, bradycardia and para sympathetic nerve's reflex and for sedation. In the present study, almost all the patients were rapidly induced with thiopental and muscle relaxant and maintained with isoflurane or sevoflurane with nitrous oxide in oxygen. In 68 cases (11.9%) of children, however, slow induction was performed. The number of nasal intubations (273 cases, 47.9%)was almost the same as the number of oral intubations (289 cases, 50.7%). Tracheostomy was performed in 7 cases (1.2%) (Table 6). Suxamethonium had been used mainly as the muscle relaxant in the previous study, however, vecuronium has taken the place of suxamethonium in these more recent 5 years (Table 5). Fentanyl was used in 142 cases (24.9%), especially 76 cases in 1996 (Trimble 7). The most common preoperative complication was cardiovascular dysfunction. Trismus was observed in 28 cases (4.9%), however, no patients had serious problems during or after general anesthesia.