Hypotensive anaesthesia and blood loss in orthognathic surgery: a clinicalstudy

Objectives: To find out whether hypotensive anaesthesia minimized blood los s during orthognathic surgery. Design: A prospective randomized clinical st udy. Subjects and Methods: 53 consecutive patients, 15-33 years old, who we re to have orthognathic operations were admitted to the study. They were ra ndomly allocated to either normotensive or hypotensive anaesthesia. Results : Median (range) blood loss/operation (ml) under hypotensive anaesthesia wa s 200 (90-400)ml and under normotensive anaesthesia was 350 (130-1575) ml ( P = 0.01), and those for maxillary segmental osteotomy under hypotensive an aesthesia were 85 (40-240) ml and, under normotensive anaesthesia, 175 (100 -190) ml (P = 0.05). Conclusion: There was pronounced reduction in blood lo ss during orthognathic operations done under hypotensive anaesthesia compar ed with those done under normotensive anaesthesia. (C) 2001 The British Ass ociation of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.