Henderson N J, Crawford P J, Reeves B C
Eastman Dental Institute for Oral Health Care Sciences, London.
Br Dent J. 1998 Feb 28;184(4):187-90. doi: 10.1038/sj.bdj.4809576.
To compare the effectiveness of calcium alginate swabs and traditional cotton swabs in the control of blood loss after extraction of deciduous teeth from healthy children, aged 3-5 years, under general anaesthetic.
Prospective, randomised clinical trial.
General anaesthetic suite in a dental teaching hospital.
101 patients were recruited to the study, comprising 50 randomised to be treated with cotton swabs and 51 with alginate swabs.
Teeth were extracted under general anaesthesia and blood collected for measurement in order to compare blood loss using the two systems.
The number of teeth extracted ranged from 1-14. The total blood loss ranged from 0.53-78.13 ml with a median of 12.9 ml.
Calcium alginate swabs were not found to produce any clinical or statistical advantage over traditional cotton swabs in this surgical setting.
