Blood fibrinolytic activity before and after oral surgery

Blood smaples were collected in cold O.1 M sodium citrate from 30 healthy young persons whose mandibular impacted molars were to be removed. Blood sampling was repeated immediately after operation. Fibrinolytic activity of the euglobin fraction, precipitated at pH 5.9, was measured by the fibrin plate method. Three different fibrinogen solutions were used: 1) bovine fibrinogen, 2) bovine plasminogen-free fibrinogen, and 3) human fibrinogen. The differences between preoperative and postoperative fibrinolytic activity were evaluated. No increase of fibrinolytic activity was seen in general, indicating that oral surgery does not necessarily influence the fibrinolytic activity of the blood. Dividing the patients according to sex or to a long/short surgical procedure did not influence the activity either. However, in four patients who developed alveolitis sicca (dry socket), a significant rise of activity on all the fibrin plats was seen (P less than 0.01) when compared with the variations measured in patients with normal healing. The result suggests that a rise of blood fibrinolytic activity of a certain magnitude during oral surgery may predispose to the devlopement of alveolitis sicca. Four females who took oral contraceptives showed a higher postoperative fibrinolytic activity (P less than 0.05) than the other females. The importance of this observation is to be investigated in further studies.