Management of intravenous anesthesia to control recovery time

Abstract

General anesthesia for ambulatory oral surgery patients demands control of recovery time. Patient safety, patient acceptance, and practice growth are dependent on successful management of recovery time. Control of recovery time starts with the making of the surgical appointment and continues until the patient is dismissed after surgery. Operating time, depth of anesthesia, and the drug and method of administration determine the recovery time. Efficient teamwork and proper equipment are necessary for the methods which allow optimum recovery time control. Merely a safe anesthesia is not good enough for the ambulatory oral surgery patient. The anesthesia and oral surgical steps must be closely coordinated. The stereotypy of specialized oral surgery practice (narrow field, positioning of patient and personnel, routine sequential use of instruments, and general motions) allows the training of surgery-anesthesia teams which are efficient and skillful beyond that which is possible in general operating room. 10 Moreover, some of the complicated techniques which are routine in oral surgery offices are very difficult to do in the hospital. Therefore, it is important for the oral surgeon to develop even better office techniques and improve recovery time control so that the scope of his office oral surgery procedures can be increased. The method for accomplishing this has been described.