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- Title
Adverse Events during Pediatric Dental Anesthesia and Sedation: A Review of Closed Malpractice Insurance Claims.
- Authors
Chicka, Maggie C.; Dembo, Jeffrey B.; Mathu-Muju, Kavita R.; Nash, David A.; Bush, Heather M.
- Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study of closed malpractice insurance claims was to provide descriptive data of adverse events related to child sedation and anesthesia in the dental office. Methods: The malpractice claims databases of two professional liability carriers were searched using pre-determined keywords for all closed claims involving anesthesia in pediatric dental patients from 1993-2002 Results: The database searches resulted in 17 claims dealing with adverse anesthesia events of which 13 involved sedation, 3 involved local anesthesia alone, and 1 involved general anesthesia. Fifty- three percent of the claims involved patient death or permanent brain damage; in these claims, the average patient age was 3.6 years, 6 involved general dentists as the anesthesia provider, and 2 involved local anesthesia alone. Local anesthetic overdoses were observed in 41% of the claims. The location of adverse event occurrence was in the dental office where care was being provided in 71% of the claims. Of the 13 claims involving sedation, only 1 claim involved the use of physiologic monitoring. Conclusions: Very young patients (<-3-years-old) are at greatest risk during administration of sedative and/or local anesthetic agents. Some practitioners are inadequately monitoring patients during sedation procedures. Adverse events have a high chance of occurring at the dental office where care is being provided.
- Subjects
ADVERSE health care events; DENTAL anesthesia; CONSCIOUS sedation; CHILD patients; DENTAL malpractice; ANESTHESIA complications; PATIENT monitoring; DENTAL ethics; DATABASES; KEYWORDS
- Publication
Pediatric Dentistry, 2012, Vol 34, Issue 3, p231
- ISSN
0164-1263
- Publication type
Article