Is telephone follow-up useful in preventing post-extraction bleeding in patients on antithrombotic treatment?

Roberto Pippi; Luca Luigetti; Maria-Giulia Scorsolini; Alessandra Pietrantoni; Arturo Cafolla

doi:10.4317/jced.57401

Is telephone follow-up useful in preventing post-extraction bleeding in patients on antithrombotic treatment?

J Clin Exp Dent. 2021 Feb 1;13(2):e140-e147. doi: 10.4317/jced.57401. eCollection 2021 Feb.

Authors

Roberto Pippi¹, Luca Luigetti², Maria-Giulia Scorsolini³, Alessandra Pietrantoni², Arturo Cafolla⁴

Affiliations

¹ Associate Professor of Oral Surgery. Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillo Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome.
² Oral surgeon. Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillo Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome.
³ Post-graduate student in Oral Surgery. Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillo Facial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome.
⁴ Aggregate Professor of Hematology. Sapienza University of Rome.

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the usefulness of telephone follow-up in preventing post-extraction bleeding and improving wound healing in patients on chronic antithrombotic treatment.

Material and methods: A prospective randomized clinical trial was carried out on 256 patients (test group = 128; control group = 128). The exact two-tailed Fisher test and the two-tailed non-parametric Mann-Whitney test were used for statistical analysis.

Results: The incidence of post-extraction bleeding was 15.6% and there was no difference between test and control groups. However, the study group was significantly, though weakly, associated with the severity of bleeding. Patient satisfaction with post-operative follow-up differed significantly between patients who had and those who did not have post-extraction bleeding.

Conclusions: Telephone follow-up after tooth extraction may play a role in the prevention of severe post-operative bleeding as well as in monitoring and managing the surgical wound. Key words:Post-operative instructions, patient satisfaction, wound healing.