Visual analogue scale assessment of postoperative swelling. A study of clinical inflammatory variables subsequent to...

Subsequent to removal of impacted lower third molars the interrelationship of four postoperative variables (swelling, pain, trismus, and dysphagia) was assessed. Patient assessment of postoperative swelling using a visual analogue scale (VAS) was easily accepted by a group (n = 40) of patients aged 17 to 46 years. A significantly positive correlation (r = 0.66, p less than 0.01) existed between metric extraoral swelling and VAS-assessed swelling; however, the latter may represent a more sensitive method when swelling is discrete. Both extraorally and VAS-assessed swelling showed no correlation with dysphagia and VAS-assessed pain. Trismus correlated moderately positively with pain and extraoral swelling (r = 0.38, p less than 0.05) and dysphagia (p less than 0.01). In the present study dysphagia showed no correlation with pain. This study shows that registration of postoperative swelling by means of a VAS may be a sensitive and accurate method with obvious practical advantages.