Surgical excision of intra-oral dermoid cyst under local anaesthesia: a review of nine cases.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to highlight the effectiveness of local anaesthesia in the surgical excision of intral-oral dermoid cyst in the absence of available modern and efficient general anaesthetic options as experienced in our environment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of nine patients with intra-oral dermoid cysts seen at the oral and maxillofacial surgery units of three specialist hospitals in eastern Nigeria was carried out between 1996 and 2007. We used simple clinical findings and the aspiration technique for our provisional diagnosis and treated our patients by using local anaesthesia, which contains 2% lignocaine hydrochloride in 1: 80,000 adrenaline.
RESULTS: Out of the nine cases seen, the male-to-female ratio was 2:1, representing six male and three female. The age range was 13-22 years, with a mean age of 19 years. The use of local anaesthesia was uneventful and despite the limited options of treatment and the absence of advanced imaging techniques we achieved total success and good results in all nine patients.
CONCLUSION: The anaesthetic difficulties and uncertainties associated with the management of intral-oral dermoid cysts especially in an environment that lack modern general anaesthetic options can be avoided by the use of local anaesthesia. This may, therefore, be an effective alternative to difficult and sometime expensive general anaesthetic methods used in developed countries and could be emulated by oral and maxillofacial surgeons in poorer countries.