Incidence of oral complications during endotracheal intubation in general anesthesia among hospitalized children.

This study aimed to determine the incidence of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) during oral tracheal intubation by traditional laryngoscopy in general anesthesia (GA) in pediatric patients aged 4-13 and the correlated risk factors in Damascus, Syria. The study included children at the Department of General Surgery, Damascus University. Each child was examined before, during, and after 12-24 h of entering the operation room. The examination aimed to obtain demographic data and information regarding anesthesia procedures and the oral cavity. This study demonstrated that the incidence of TDIs during oral tracheal intubation was 16.00%. Most of those injuries are intra-oral, which were related to soft tissue. Maxillary incisors were the most affected teeth. Concussion and tongue injury were the common types of hard and soft tissue injury, respectively. There is a relation between TDIs and the occlusal stage, the difficulty of intubation, the number of intubation attempts, the Mallampati score, inter-incisor distance, and the distance between the mental and thyroid cartilage (p < 0.05). TDIs during oral tracheal intubation in GA are injuries with many risk factors and can't be avoided even with skilled anesthetists. Careful Preoperative clinical examination of the oral cavity by anesthesiologists can reduce the incidence of TDIs.