The 1988 anesthesia survey of the Southern California Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

The results of the fourth anesthesia morbidity and mortality survey of the members of the Southern California Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons is presented. A questionnaire was mailed to 203 active members in February 1988. All responded or were contacted by Society staff and a response obtained. Results were compared with the three previous studies and revealed trends in training, length of time in practice, modes of practice, equipment used, medications used, numbers of anesthetic procedures performed, and specific instances of morbidity and mortality. Over the 20-year period from 1968 through 1987, seven deaths occurred in more than 4,700,000 anesthetics given, a rate of one death in each 673,000 anesthetics administered.