Abstract: PURPOSE: To investigate the safety and efficacy of nitrous oxide/ oxygen inhalation sedation assisted in elderly hypertensive patients under local anesthesia during tooth extraction. METHODS: Forty elderly patients (age≥ 70 years) with hypertension who needed tooth extraction with electrocardiographic monitoring were selected, and divided into experimental and control groups randomly, with 20 patients in each group. The experimental group was treated with nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation sedation and local anesthesia for surgery, the control group underwent tooth extraction under local anesthesia. Heart rate, blood pressure, as well as differences of operative time in all groups before surgery, during operation and after surgery were observed and compared. SPSS 11.0 software package was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The intraoperative HR, BP of patients in the control group was significantly higher than those of patients in the experimental group (P<0.05). HR, BP were relatively stable during the whole procedure in the experimental group. Compared with the control group, surgery was significantly longer in the experimental group (P<0.05). The difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation sedation assisted local anesthesia can be a safe and effective anesthetic method in tooth extraction of elderly patients with hypertension.

Key words: Nitrous oxide/oxygen, Inhalation sedation, Elderly patients, Hypertension, Tooth extraction