Abstract
Although the mechanism of systemic complications due to the oral environment in the perioperative period and oral complications due to treatment have been elucidated, it has become clear that improving the oral environment can prevent perioperative complications. Though the necessity of multi-professional collaboration is widely known to promote safer perioperative and higher quality medical care, few facilities have well-systematized oral management. Thus, in September 2014, our hospital established a perioperative management team to provide safe perioperative and high-quality medical care. Our department focuses on intraoral management in the perioperative period. Therefore, we report here the current status and usefulness of the management of perioperative oral function in our hospital.
From September 2014 to March 2018, a total of 4297 patients visited our department for perioperative oral function management. To investigate the usefulness of this management, we analyzed the number of cases of pneumonia, surgical site infection, and bloodstream infection. No significant differences were found in the total number of medically associated infections between the group of patients with dental intervention under perioperative oral function management and the non-intervention group; however, the incidence of pneumonia was significantly decreased in the intervention group. An investigation of clinical indicators associated with postoperative complications among high-risk patients revealed a high percentage of patients in the medical infection group with low preoperative albumin levels, long surgery, hemodialysis, and steroid use. Based on these findings, introducing perioperative oral function management may promote improved safety during surgery and the prevention of postoperative complications, and hospital dentistry appears to play a major role in perioperative medical care; therefore, dentists should utilize their specialized knowledge about oral hygiene to make positive contributions to perioperative medical care．
