title: Cardiovascular monitoring and its consequences in oral surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Higher life expectancy has lead to an increase of elderly patients in dental practices, thus also causing an increase in high-risk cardiovascular patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 3012 patients had oral surgery with local anesthesia at the Department of Oral Surgery, Oral Radiology and Oral Medicine at the University of Basel. The Colin BP 306 compact monitor was used during these surgeries. The patient's heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation were routinely checked, both before and during the procedure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The oral surgical procedure had to be discontinued 17 times, because the patient developed significantly elevated blood pressure. Twice, the procedure had to be discontinued due to cardiac arrhythmia. The average age of these 19 patients was 63.5 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-and intraoperative monitoring allows the dentist to identify patients with high-risk diagnostic findings and to reduce problematic cardiovascular situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Oral Radiology and Oral Medicine, University of Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J Thomas
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Lambrecht
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Filippi
authors.forename: Jeannine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arrigoni
keywords: Blood pressure measurement; high-risk patient; hypertension; monitoring