Methods: 50 hospitalized patients with odontogenic infection that were admitted between March 2005 to Febuary 2006 in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, were included in the study. Pre-hospitalization data (age, gender, general health status, clinical and laboratory data, antibiotic intake, anatomic space involved, cause of infection, type of infection abscess or cellulites, severity score of the infection), and data before hospital discharge (laboratory data, surgical treatment applied and length of stay) were statistically analyzed to isolate the parameters which mostly correlated with LOS. Linear regression model was carried out to obtain a predictive model for LOS using the statistically significant parameters.
Results: Systemic clinical findings, such as body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and white blood cell (WBC) count, had normal to slightly elevated values at admission, statistically significant compared to the data at discharge. High blood count WBC, polymorphonuclear cells (PMN), C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as patient systemic disease and high severity score (SS) were significant to longer LOS. High SS combined with predisposing systemic disease were synergistically interacted with LOS (P=0.069).
Conclusions: Orofacial odontogenic infection may be regarded as local infection disease with systemic manifestation. Hospital LOS is influenced directly by WBC, CRP, SS and general health status which increases LOS.