Limiting blood loss in orthognathic surgery with Esmolol as a hypotensive agent

Abstract

Orthognathic surgery may be complicated by difficulty in achieving hemostasis because unlike soft tissue, the vessels traversing bone cannot be identified and isolated before osteotomy. In this study we evaluated the amount of blood loss and duration of surgery under deliberate hypotensive anesthesia in comparison to amount of blood loss and duration of surgery under normotensive anesthesia on patients undergoing orthognathic surgical procedures. A total of 16 cases undergoing orthognathic surgery were included in this clinical study. Patients were randomly grouped under normotensive (group I) or hypotensive group (group 2). Patients in hypotensive anesthesia group were given Esmolol to maintain mean arterial pressure in the range of 70-80 mm of Hg till osteotomy segments were fixed. There was more than 40% reduction in blood loss in orthognathic surgical procedures when induced hypotension was used, but there was not statistically significant (p=0.91) reduction in the operative time. Based on surgeons and anesthetist's assessment fast acting agents like Esmolol can be used intraoperatively to induce hypotension as and when required.