Objectives: to compare clinically the treatment of deep intrabony defects with the combination of flap surgery (FS)+ Fisiograft® to the FS alone.
Methods:13 patients with chronic periodontitis, displaying a total of 24 deep intrabony defects, were randomly treated either with FS + Fisiograft® (test) or with FS(control). Soft tissue measurements were made at baseline and six months following the surgery. The Wilcoxon paired-samples test was used to statistically evaluate the changes from baseline to six months;the Mann-Whitney U independent-samples test was used for comparison between the groups.
Results:No differences in any of the investigated parameters were observed at baseline between groups. Healing occurred uneventful in all patients. At six months after therapy, the test group showed a reduction in mean probing depth (PD) from 7.92 ± 1.88 mm to 3.83 ± 1.27 (p=0.002) and a change in mean clinical attachment level (CAL) from 8.58 ± 1.78 mm to 5.50±1.78 (p=0.003). In the control group, the mean PD was reduced from 7.08 ± 1.08 mm to 4.42 ± 1.44 (p=0.002) and the mean CAL changed from 8.00 ± 1.28 mm to 7.00 ± 2.13 (ns). The test treatment resulted in statistically higher PD reductions (p=0.024) and CAL gains (p=0.02) than the control group. In both groups, a minute or no radiographic defect fill was observed at six months after treatment.
Conclusions:1) at six months after the surgery both therapies resulted in PD reductions and CAL gains, and 2) treatment with access flap + Fisiograft® resulted in significantly higher CAL gains and PD reductions than treatment with FS alone.