Preventive Effects of Sustainable and Developmental Perioperative Oral Management Using the “Oral Triage” System on Postoperative Pneumonia after Cancer Surgery

Hideki Sekiya, Yasuhiro Kurasawa, Kosuke Kaneko, Ken-ichiro Takahashi, Yutaka Maruoka, Yukihiro Michiwaki, Yoshimasa Takeda and Ryoichi Ochiai
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Hideki Sekiya: Department of Oral Surgery, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Yasuhiro Kurasawa: Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Tokyo Medical & Dental University, Tokyo 113-0034, Japan
Kosuke Kaneko: Department of Oral Surgery, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Ken-ichiro Takahashi: Department of Oral Surgery, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Yutaka Maruoka: Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Center Hospital of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan
Yukihiro Michiwaki: Department of Oral Surgery, School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Yoshimasa Takeda: Department of Anesthesiology (Omori), School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan
Ryoichi Ochiai: Department of Anesthesiology (Omori), School of Medicine, Toho University, Tokyo 143-8541, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Perioperative oral management is widely recognized in the healthcare system of Japan. Conventionally, the surgeon refers patients with oral problems to a dental or oral surgery clinic in the hospital. However, frequent in-house referrals were found to increase the number of incoming patients resulting in unsustainable situations due to an insufficient workforce. In 2011, the Center for Perioperative Medicine was established at our hospital to function as a management gateway for patients scheduled to undergo surgery under general anesthesia. The “oral triage” system, wherein a dental hygienist conducts an oral screening to select patients who need preoperative oral hygiene and functional management, was established in 2012. A total of 37,557 patients who underwent surgery at our hospital from April 2010 to March 2019 (two years before and seven years after introducing the system) were evaluated in this study. The sustainability and effectiveness of introducing the system were examined in 7715 cancer surgery patients. An oral management intervention rate of 20% and a significant decrease in the incidence of postoperative pneumonia (aOR = 0.50, p = 0.03) indicated that this system could be useful as a sustainable and developmental oral management strategy to manage surgical patients with minimal human resources.

Keywords: cancer surgery; oral care; oral triage; postoperative pneumonia; perioperative oral management; minimal human resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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