BMC Oral Health (Feb 2018)

Reliability and validity of measuring scale for postoperative complications in third molar surgery

  • Pedro Christian Aravena,
  • Paula Astudillo,
  • Horacio Miranda,
  • Carlos Manterola

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-018-0486-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Background Third molar removal surgery is the most frequently performed surgery in the oral and maxillofacial field with a wide range of items in the quantification of postoperative complications. For their measure, in 2014 a previous scale design was presented. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of a scale designed to measure and quantify postoperative complications in third molar surgery (TMS). Methods A cross-sectional study of a measurement model was designed. Sixty-two patients (mean age 20.5 ± 6.6 years; 36 women) underwent TMS in three Chilean hospitals. In the postoperative check-up on the 7th day, a maxillofacial surgeon and a surgical resident performed independent postoperative assessments, applying the scale. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to obtain validity, internal consistency, interobserver reliability and a score to categorize the severity of complications using structural equation model analysis. Results Nine patients (14.5%) had complications. The scale was defined by two components: “Secondary complication” and “Infection” (Cronbach’s alpha 0.71; Interobserver reliability 87.7%) and three categories of postoperative complication: “without or mild”, “moderate” and “severe”. Conclusion This study presents a reliability and validity scale called “Surgical complication assessment scale in TMS”.

Keywords