Pediatric morbidity after oral surgery procedures under general anaesthesia: A systematic review

The aim of this study is to carry out a systematic review of the existing literature on postoperative morbidity after general anaesthesia (GA) in the dental care of paediatric patients, its frequency, characteristics and asso-ciation with the intervention performed.Material and methods: An exhaustive search of the literature published up to 23 February 2022 was carried out in PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane and EBSCO, with the following strategy: (infant OR child OR adoles-cent) AND (Oral Surgical Procedures OR Dentistry, Operative) AND Anesthesia, General AND Postoperative Complications.Results: The most frequent reason for the indication of general anaesthesia was dental caries and its compli-cations (up to 91.0% of patients), followed by lack of cooperation/anxiety and/or fear for dental procedures in the office (between 39.8 and 47.9%). There is a higher prevalence for treatments in the special patient group reaching 87.7% compared to 63.3% in healthy patients. The main comorbidities recorded were: physical or mental disability, neurological, haematological, cardiac disorders, asthma, Down's syndrome; it was not pos-sible to establish their association with the intervention performed. Regarding complications, complaints occurred between 43.0 and 98.9% of cases within the first 24 hours, the main reason being pain (between 14.0% and 95.0%). Conclusions: Pediatric dental procedures under GA carry a very low risk of major complications, but have a virtually universal incidence of minor complications.(c) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.