Clinical criteria, consisting of an appraisal of surgical difficulty and post¬operative pain, and chemical criteria, consisting of changes in serum free and urine total 17-OHCS, were studied on 71 patients who had undergone the removal of mandibu¬lar third molar impactions. A significant association was found between surgical difficulty and serum free 17-OHCS concentration in blood specimens taken at both 1 hour (P < .01) and 3 hours (P < .05) postoperatively. No significant association was found between pain experience at 3 hours postoperatively and serum free 17-OHCS concentration when the blood samples were drawn at 1 hour postoperatively. A significant correlation was found between pain experience at 3 hours postoperatively and serum free 17-OHCS concentration when the blood samples were drawn at 3 hours postoperatively (P < .01). No significant differences in urine total 17-OHCS con¬centration were detected when the subjects were grouped according to either surgical difficulty or postoperative pain experience.
展开▼
