HEALTH NEWS

Study Title:

Comparison of efficiency of hyaluronic acid and/or bone grafts in healing of bone defects.

Study Abstract

Background: Reconstruction of bone defects in oral and maxillofacial surgery has widespread uses. In recent years, the capacity of various biomaterials alone or in combination with bone graft materials to increase bone healing has been an intensive research topic. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of hyaluronic acid and/or bone graft material on bone healing in defects created in the rat mandible. Methods: In our study, rats were divided into 4 groups. Group 1 is designated to be treated with no materials, Group 2 with graft material, Group 3 with only hyaluronic acid, and Group with hyaluronic acid and graft material. A critical-size defect of 5 mm in diameter was created bilaterally in the rat mandibles and the rats were divided into the indicated groups accordingly. At the end of the postoperative 6th week, the experiment was terminated. The right halves of the mandibles were evaluated immunohistochemically and histopathologically in terms of bone healing, and the left in terms of mineralization level via microcomputed tomography.

Results: Histopathological evaluation showed that healing in the empty group was significantly lower than the other groups that were treated with materials (P < 0.05); but the difference between the material-treated groups was not significant. Immunohistochemical evaluation revealed that the staining was moderately positive/strongly positive in all groups, but the difference between the groups was not significant. The highest mineralization values observed in the defected areas that belonged to 2 groups using hyaluronic acid, and the difference between them was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). The lowest mineralization values observed in the defected areas was most frequent in the group where only the hyaluronic acid was used, and there was a statistically significant difference between the other groups (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: In conclusion, the use of hyaluronic acid alone or in combination with bone grafting has been shown to contribute positively to the improvement of bone defects in the jaw area.