title: Hemostasis and Post-operative Care of Oral Surgical Wounds by Hemcon Dental Dressing in Patients on Oral Anticoagulant Therapy: A Split Mouth Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hemostasis is a fundamental management issue post-operatively in minor oral surgical procedures. To ensure safety and therapeutic efficacy in patients, under oral anti coagulant therapy, is complicated by necessity for frequent determination of prothrombin time or international normalised ratio.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study was to determine whether early hemostasis achieved by using Hemcon Dental Dressing (HDD) will affect post-operative care and surgical healing outcome in minor oral surgical procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 30 patients, aged 18 years to 90 years, except those allergic to seafood, who consented to participate, were enrolled into this study. Patients were required to have two or more surgical sites so that they would have both surgical and control sites. All patients taking Oral Anticoagulation Therapy (OAT) were included for treatment in the study without altering the anticoagulant regimens. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for the same. The collected data was subjected to statistical analysis using unpaired t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All HDD surgically treated sites achieved hemostasis in 1.49 minutes and control wounds in 4.06 minutes (p < 0.001). Post-operative pain at HDD treated sites (1.87,1.27 on 1stand 3rdday respectively) was significantly lower than the control sites (4.0,1.87 on 1stand 3rdday respectively) p-value (0.001, 0.001 respectively). HDD treated oral surgery wounds achieved statistically significant improved healing both at 1stand 3rdpost-operative days (p <0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HDD has been proven to be a clinically effective hemostatic dressing material that significantly shortens bleeding time following minor oral surgical procedures under local anaesthesia, including those patients taking OAT. Patients receiving the HDD had improved surgical wound healing as compared to controls.
authors: Head of the Department, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Sri Siddhartha Dental College , Tumkur, Karnataka, India .
authors: K R Ashok
authors: KR
authors: Kumar
authors: Senior Lecturer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Vishnu Dental Collage , Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh, India .
authors: Jambukeshwar
authors: J
authors: Kumar
authors: Consultant Oral Oncologist, Siddhagiri Hospital , Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India .
authors: Jagadesh
authors: J
authors: Sarvagna
authors: Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Vishnu Dental College , Bhimavaram, Andhrapradesh, India .
authors: Praveen
authors: P
authors: Gadde
authors: Postgraduate, Department of Periodontics, Vakkaligara Sanga Dental College , Bangalore, Karnataka, India .
authors: Shwetha
authors: S
authors: Chikkaboriah
keywords: Bleeding; Chitosan dressing; Extraction wound healing; International normalised ratio; Minor oral surgery