Bacteremia Following Closed and Open Dental Extraction

To observe bacteremia following closed and open dental extraction.

The study included two subject groups each comprising 29 participants. Group I patients received a single closed dental extraction, and group II patients – a single open extraction. Venous blood from the cubital vein of each patient was collected in three samples – preoperatively, 30 seconds after surgery, and 15 minutes after surgery. Anaerobic and aerobic hemocultures (Bact/ALERT, BioMerieux, Inc., Durhamn, N.C.) were used to study the bacteremia process.

Preoperatively, bacteremia was confirmed in 4 patients (6.9%) undergoing closed extraction and in 1 patient (1.7%) undergoing open extraction. Additionally, we found statistically significant relation between bacteremia and age (p=0.002). Thirty seconds after surgery bacteriemia was evident in 6 patients (10.3%) from group I and in 3 (5.2%) from group II. Fifteen minutes following surgery bacteremia was evident in 4 patients (6.9%) undergoing typical extraction and in one patient (1.7%) undergoing surgical extraction. No statistically significant relation between type of extraction and presence of bacteria in the bloodstream at 30 seconds (p=0.285) and at 15 minutes (p=0.166) was found. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was the most frequently found microorganism (22.2% of aerobic and 11.1% of anaerobic hemocultures). The results show greater significance of bacteremia at 30 seconds, compared to preoperative samples for both subject groups (p=0.03).

Bacteremia following dental extraction is unaffected by duration of intervention, type of extraction and gender.