[Needle breakage during local anaesthesia].

Two patients were referred to a maxillofacial surgeon in connection with the occurrence of needle breakage during local anaesthesia. In the first case, of a 67-year-old woman, it concerned a needle breakage after giving mandibular block anaesthesia. The needle could be removed quite easily under local anaesthesia. The second case concerned a less cooperative patient of 8 years old with whom needle breakage occurred after infiltration anaesthesia in the mucobuccal fold of the maxilla with the so-called QuickSleeper 5, needle breakage. After exact localisation by means of cone beam computerised tomography, the 9 mm size needle was removed under general anaesthesia with some difficulty.