Comparative Study of Blood Loss, Quality of Surgical Field and Duration of Surgery in Maxillofacial Cases with and without Hypotensive Anesthesia

BACKGROUND: Oral and maxillofacial surgeons are concern about the intraoperative bleeding because blood supply to face is very generous. Increased blood loss may lead to the need for transfusion of blood and blood products and hence patients are exposed to the risks associated with it. Hence, this study was undertaken to compare whether there is any significant difference in blood loss, surgical field and duration of surgery in patients undergoing maxillofacial surgeries with and without hypotensive anesthesia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on patients undergoing various maxillofacial surgeries. The patients were randomly divided into two groups, the study group and the control group. In the study group patients, induced hypotension was used in order to maintain systolic pressure of 80-90 mm Hg. In the control group patients, normotensive anesthesia was used. Estimation of blood loss (EBS), quality of the surgical field and duration of surgery was calculated for both groups in three types of surgical procedures. Statistical analysis was performed by using two-tailed Pearson correlation test. RESULTS: EBS was found to be significantly less in all the surgical procedures carried out under hypotensive anesthesia (P < 0.05). The quality of the surgical field was better in cases with induced hypotension, but there was no significant difference in duration of the procedures with and without induced hypotension. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that hypotensive anesthesia can be safely used in almost all maxillofacial surgical procedures with reduced blood loss and improved surgical field.