Brugada Syndrome Updated Risk Assessment and Perioperative Management in Oral Surgery: A Case Series

Brugada syndrome (BrS) carries the risk of major dysrhythmias increased further by exposure to pro-dysrhythmic factors related to oral surgical procedures such as local anesthetics, anxiety, and postoperative pain. Such risk can be handled by updated multidisciplinary management. In 2020, 3 male BrS patients needed oral surgical treatments at the Complex Unit of Odontostomatology of Aldo Moro University of Bari, Italy. Multidisciplinary individual risk assessment involved cardiologic hazard ratio stratification, event-free survival stratification, and 5-year average risk of ventricular dysrhythmias and sudden cardiac death for Brugada patients; American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status risk class; expected complexity and duration of the procedure; and anxiety score measured by the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. The authors administered conscious sedation by intravenous diazepam to both a patient susceptible to vasovagal syncope needing tooth extraction with concomitant cystectomy (longer-lasting procedure) and to another who needed routine tooth extraction (brief procedure) but had a moderate dental anxiety score; the last 1 received local anesthesia alone due to his low anxiety, low susceptibility to vasovagal syncope, and need for routine tooth extraction. After positioning external biphasic defibrillator pads, 12-leads continuous electrocardiogram, and peripheral venous access, extractions were performed with local anesthesia by lidocaine 2% with epinephrine 1:100,000; acetaminophen was suggested for postoperative analgesia. No electrocardiographic changes occurred in the perioperative period. The current multidisciplinary individual risk assessment allowed us to detect each BrS patient's risk factors for major dysrhythmias and to adapt oral surgical and anesthesiologic protocols for safe targeted treatment.