Ricerc@Sapienza

Objectives The aim of this randomized controlled clinical trial was to compare the clinical outcomes obtained in intrabony
defects following regenerative periodontal surgery using the single-flap approach (SFA) in conjunction with either hyaluronic
acid (HA) or enamel matrix derivative (EMD).
Materials and methods Thirty-two intrabony defects in 32 healthy subjects were randomly assigned: HA (test group) or EMD
(control group). Clinical attachment level (CAL), probing depth (PD), gingival recession (REC), and bleeding on probing (BOP)
were recorded at baseline,12, 18, and 24 months after surgery.
Results At 24 months, both treatments resulted in statistically significant clinical improvements evidenced by PD-reduction and
CAL-gain (p<0.001). The mean CAL-gain was 2.19±1.11 mm in the test and 2.94±1.12 mm in the control sites (p=0.067). PDreduction
was statistically significantly higher for the control group (4.5±0.97 mm) than the test group (3.31±0.70 mm),
(p=0.001). CAL-gain ≤ 3 mm was observed in 87.5% and in 62.5% of the test and control sites, respectively. Test sites showed
slightly lower REC values than the control sites. No statistically significant differences were found for BOP between treatments.
Conclusions The present findings indicate that both treatments led to statistically significant clinical improvements compared to
baseline, although the application of EMD resulted in statistically significantly higher PD-reduction compared to the use of HA.
Clinical relevance The use of HA in conjunction with a SFA resulted in significant PD-reduction and CAL-gain, pointing to the
potential clinical relevance of this material in regenerative periodontal surgery.