Preoperative assessment of patients with inflammatory processes in the maxillo-facial region: a minireview

The statistical data show the continuosly increasing number of patients with chronic diseases and this fact has a significant impact on the workload of all clinicians, including maxillofacial surgeons. On the other hand, inflammatory processes in the maxillofacial region are an important problem for maxillofacial surgeons due to the high number of patients who present with this diagnosis, but also because of the life-threatening complications that may occur. Besides the usual complications, a maxillofacial surgeon has to be aware of other comorbidities of the patients diagnosed with inflammatory processes, falling into the category of medically complex patients. The preoperative assessment main purpose is to identify those patients for whom the perioperative period may present an increased risk of morbidity and mortality, aside from the known complications already associated with inflammatory processes. This article aims to emphasize the importance of performing a complete and meticulous preoperative assessment of every single patient, even the apparently healthy ones, since the patient himself may be unaware of a comorbidity he might have. In order to facilitate this process, the use of standardized questionnaires for different groups of patients is encouraged for the prompt assessment of the patient’s condition. Another suggestion is the use of standardized protocols for emergency situations that may occur with these patients, including the use of tables with possible drug interactions between the medication used for the management of their chronic disease with the medication administered in the maxillofacial surgery unit