Efficacy of bone graft as monotherapy and in combination with platelet concentrates in grade II furcation defect – A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The use of autologous platelet concentrates (PC) in addition to bone graft (BG) in open flap debridement (OFD) has been investigated to improve the efficacy and outcomes of regenerative therapy for furcation defects. This systematic review evaluated efficacy of added benefits of PC to bone grafts in treatment of grade II furcation defects. METHODS: A thorough literature search on PubMed, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar databases was conducted. Data on outcomes were extracted only from randomized controlled clinical trials on humans with a minimum follow up of 6 months comparing BG alone and BG + PC in treatment of mandibular grade II furcation defect. RESULTS: 36 of the 518 screened articles and abstracts were read in full-text, nine of which have been included in the meta-analysis. The addition of PC to BG has resulted in improvement in PD, GR (with smaller effect); V-DBD and H-DBD showed smaller change in experimental group whereas VCAL and HCAL exhibited overall larger changes with smaller effect. CONCLUSION: Bone regeneration in terms of defect fill with the addition of platelet concentrates to bone graft remains debatable considering the minimal benefits in the treatment of grade II mandibular furcation defect.