Abstract

An abstract of this study was presented at the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) Dental Anesthesiology Research Group in Honolulu, Hawaii, in March of 2004. This study was conducted to correlate the intraoperative and postoperative morbidity associated with moderate and deep sedation, also known as monitored anesthesia care (MAC), provided in a General Practice Residency (GPR) clinic under the supervision of a dentist anesthesiologist. After internal review board approval was obtained, 100 parenteral moderate and deep sedation cases performed by the same dentist anesthesiologist in collaboration with second year GPR residents were randomly selected and reviewed by 2 independent evaluators. Eleven morbidity criteria were assessed and were correlated with patient age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiology Physical Status Classification (ASAPS), duration of procedure, and anesthetic protocol. A total of 39 males and 61 females were evaluated. Patients' ASAPS were classified as I, II, and III, with the average ASAPS of 1.61 and the standard deviation (STDEV) of 0.584. No ASPS IV or V was noted. Average patient age was 33.8 years (STDEV, 14.57), and the average duration of procedure was 97.5 minutes (STDEV, 42.39). Three incidents of postoperative nausea and vomiting were reported. All 3 incidents involved the ketamine-midazolam-propofol anesthetic combination. All patients were treated and were well controlled with ondansetron. One incident of tongue biting in an autistic child was regarded as an effect of local anesthesia. One patient demonstrated intermittent premature atrial contractions (PACs) intraoperatively but was stable. Moderate and deep sedation, also known as MAC, is safe and beneficial in an outpatient GPR setting with proper personnel and monitoring. This study did not demonstrate a correlation between length of procedure and morbidity. Ketamine was associated with all reported nausea and vomiting incidents because propofol and midazolam are rarely associated with such events.