Correlations between early ultrasound markers and the outcomes of staged lateral guided bone regeneration

Purpose: Guided bone regeneration (GBR) is a widely used strategy for augmenting lost jawbone.The extent of bone gain varies among patients and typically remains unknown until after a healing period of 4-6 months.This study aims to demonstrate the use of novel ultrasonography techniques to provide predictive values for bone gain.Methods: This study included 16 subjects with 20 edentulous ridges undergoing GBR for lateral bone deficiencies of 1-3 mm in the posterior mandible.Ultrasound (US) images were captured at the surgical site 10 days postoperatively.Four US-derived parameters were assessed: tissue perfusion, wound approximation, tissue swelling, and bone integrity.Each parameter was categorized as either "favorable" or "unfavorable."These parameters were then correlated with bone gain, measured from pre-intervention and 5-month postintervention cone-beam computed tomography images.Results: This study assessed 20 sites (mean patient age, 58 years) with resorbable membranes and mixed mineralized/demineralized cortical allografts.The mean bone gain was 1.5 mm (standard deviation, 2.54 mm; range, -4.86 to 7.31 mm).Significantly greater bone gain was observed in cases with favorable wound approximation and biomaterial stability.The multivariate linear regression analysis revealed a significant association between biomaterial stability and bone gain, with an average gain of 4.56 mm (95% confidence interval, 2.28 to 6.84; P=0.001; R 2 =0.59).Conclusions: These newly developed US parameters could potentially predict bone gain as early as 10 days following GBR.While proper wound approximation is crucial, the stability of biomaterials may ultimately determine the outcome of GBR.