Basic and patient-oriented researchSevere Third Molar Complications Including Death—Lessons from 100 Cases Requiring Hospitalization
Section snippets
Study Design and Sample
In this study, we used a prospective case series design in which all consecutive patients were enrolled who were admitted from general dental practitioners, oral surgeons, and maxillofacial surgeons for management of acute complications associated with M3. The patients were included in the study due to acute complications requiring urgent hospital treatment according to the German Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (G-AEP) criteria for patient hospitalization, forwarded by the German Hospital
Patients and Diagnoses
The sample of 100 consecutive patients was enrolled within 3 years and 6 months. The patients requiring hospital treatment due to severe M3-associated complications represents 2.3% of the total number of patients hospitalized at our institution during this time interval. The catchment area of our hospital amounts to a population of roughly 2,600,000 which represents about 65% of the inhabitants of the county of “Rheinland Pfalz.”
Although there was a preponderance of young adults in this cohort,
Discussion
It was the lack of adequate data on M3-associated severe complications that prompted our prospective observational study in 2003. Meanwhile, we enrolled 100 cases in this sample which provides the basis to further analyze the clinical and economic variables with respect to the status of M3.
As in our previous report20 and in accordance with the data of Berge17, 18 we found a 2:1 preponderance of patients hospitalized due to complications arising from M3 removal versus those hospitalized due to
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