Effect of Surgical Repair of Chronic Oroantral Fistula Using PRF with Tailored 3D Printed Mesh

Abstract

Background: Oro-antral fistula may emerge following the removal of maxillary cysts or tumors, facial trauma, dentoalveolar or implant
surgery, and infection or may even be iatrogenic in nature. Spontaneous healing can happen in a less than 2mm defect, but larger fistulas need prompt attention and immediate treatment, so as to avoid PRF gaining increased attention in various regenerative medical clinical fields due to its accessibility, natural autologous origins, and promising regenerative capacity. PRF can be gained from patients’ own peripheral blood by single-step centrifugation. The Aim of the Study: assess the effect of surgical repair using PRF with tailored 3D printed mesh on patients with chronic oroantral fistula.

Materials and Methods: This prospective study included (16) patients whose ages ranged from (16- 68) years,
suffering from chronic oroantral fistula, and underwent surgical repair using PRF with tailored 3D printed mesh at AL-Wasity Teaching
Hospital from (March-2020 to August-2021). Results: the highest proportion of the study patients in both the PRF and mesh groups were within the age group (<60) years (87.5% and 62.5% respectively). In this study, half of the study patients in both groups (50%) were smokers. The most common cause of fistula in both groups was trauma during dental extraction (37.5% in both groups). Regarding size of fistula, it was (<20) mm in (50%) of the PRF group and in (75%) of the mesh group, and (50%) of the patients in the mesh group showed healing compared to (37.5%) of patients in the PRF group.

Conclusions: The majority of OAF cases treated with PRF in our study occurred among the older ages, with equal number of males and females. No major complications were encountered in this study. It was shown that half number of the patients in the mesh group showed healing.