Abstract: Edentulism and tooth loss are major causes of mask ventilation leakage (MVL).There is no effective method to prevent MVL in edentulous elderly patients at present.We designed a mouth-facial supportor in an attempt to minimize MVL due to the edentulism,and evaluated the efficacy of this device during mask ventilation in toothless elderly patients in this study.186 patients were enralled for elective surgeries with general anesthesia into the study.Among them,116 patients were toothless and randomly assigned to either Group A or Group B.The mouth-facial supportor was used for patients in Group A,whereas no device was used for those in Group B.The remaining 70 patients with normal dentition were assigned to Group C.Mask ventilation was performed after induction of anesthesia.The mask was held by a male anesthesiologist with over 10-year experience with single hand.Actual expiratory tidal volume,oxygen saturation (SpO₂),blood pressure and heart rate were monitored and recorded.MVL in Group A and Group C were significantly lower than that in Group B (P<0.05).The success rates of mask ventilation in Group A,Group B and Group C were 83.3%,17.9% and 75.7% respectively.No difference was detected in the success rates between Group A and Group C;however,it was significantly higher than that in Group B (P<0.05).The result showed that our designed mouth-facial supportor raised the success rate of mask ventilation in toothless patients to 83.3%,comparable to that in toothed patients.

Key words: Elderly patient, Endentation, Endentulism, Mouth-facial supportor, Mask ventilation, Anesthesia induction