The aim of the present pilot investigation was to compare the effectiveness of six treatment protocols providing temporomandibular joint (TMJ) arthrocentesis with or without additional drugs to manage symptoms in patients with inflammatory-degenerative TMJ disease. A consecutive series of 72 patients with TMJ osteoarthritis (axis group IIIb) with pain lasting from more than 6 months were randomly assigned to one of the groups receiving the following treatment protocols: single-session two-needle arthrocentesis (A), single-session two-needle arthrocentesis plus corticosteroid (B), single-session two-needle arthrocentesis plus low molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HA) (C), single-session two-needle arthrocentesis plus high molecular weight HA (D), 5 weekly two-needle arthrocenteses plus low molecular weight HA (E) and 5 weekly single-needle arthrocenteses plus low molecular weight HA (F). At the 3-month follow-up, improvement with respect to mean baseline values was recorded in all the five treatment groups completing the protocol. No significant differences emerged between groups in any outcome variable. The protocol providing five sessions of two-needle arthrocenteses plus low molecular weight HA allowed achieving the highest improvement in almost all the outcome variables. Findings suggested that no statistically significant differences existed between the treatment groups. The clinical significance of these findings needs to be tested with future studies on larger samples with longer follow-up periods.

Alveolar bone regeneration by means of titanium meshes is a widespread procedure, however to date, only few relevant studies were reported in literature concerning this technique. Consequently, the aim of the present systematic review was to analyze the reliability of the titanium mesh as a barrier, in conjunction with horizontal and vertical ridge reconstruction for implant placement purposes. A total of 17 articles complying with the inclusion and exclusion criteria were reviewed. Three outcome variables were defined: a) horizontal and vertical bone regeneration obtained, b) complication rate, defined as the percentage of membrane exposures and c) evaluation of implant survival, success and failure rate.In regards to the vertical regeneration the mean was 4.91 mm (range: 2.56 - 8.6), while a mean of 4.36 mm (range: 3.75 - 5.65) was calculated for horizontal reconstruction. Considering the exposure rate, a mean of 16.1% was found, nevertheless, implant placement were placed in almost all of the sites. A mean success rate of 89,9%, a mean survival rate of 100% and a failure rate of 0% emerged from the data evaluation. A meta-analysis could not be performed due to the heterogeneity of the data, however the final results were comparable with those reported in case of bone regeneration obtained through other types of non-resorbable membranes. An advantage in favour of the titanium mesh was found in terms of bone loss after exposure, as implant placement was not jeopardized in almost all of the cases. It could be deduced that titanium meshes represented a reliable solution for alveolar ridge reconstruction. The clinical studies currently available in literature have shown the predictability of this technique in both lateral and vertical bone regeneration. Key words:Alveolar ridge reconstruction, bone atrophy, bone regeneration, dental implants, titanium mesh.

Aim of this investigation is to evaluate prevalence, localization, and height of 114 maxillary sinus septa by using cone-beam computed tomography scans. The thickness of the mucosa has been measured together with the variations of the membrane in relation to those septa. A total of 228 maxillary sinuses have been considered. Septa were identified using "panorex" reconstructions and axial scans of cone-beam computed tomography using the software "eXamVision." The thickness of the mucosa has been evaluated in the paraxial scans and related to those septa where they were present. In the current study, the prevalence of sinus septa is 38.1%. Significant difference can be found in the height of primary and secondary septa. The mean height of primary septa was 5.5 mm (± 1.19) and of secondary septa 3.4 mm (± 1.6). Anterior and medium septa resulted significantly higher than posterior septa (P = 0.003). The medium thickness of the mucosa was 0.85 mm (± 0.58), whereas close to the septa it turned out to be 1.8 mm (± 1.87). The difference is statistically relevant (P = 0.003). There is no statistically significant proportional relation between dimensions of septa and thickness of mucosa (P = 0.53). Underwood septa are frequent anatomic variations of the maxillary sinus. Their presence may result in a thickening of the sinus membrane. The systematic study of radiographic anatomy of maxillary sinus is necessary before the sinus lift surgery planning.

Background Careful assessment of bleeding history is the first step in the evaluation of patients with mild/moderate bleeding disorders, and the use of a bleeding assessment tool (BAT) is strongly encouraged. Although a few studies have assessed the utility of the ISTH‐BAT in patients with inherited platelet function disorders (IPFD) none of them was sufficiently large to draw conclusions and/or included appropriate control groups. Objectives The aim of the present study was to test the utility of the ISTH‐BAT in a large cohort of patients with a well‐defined diagnosis of inherited platelets disorder in comparison with two parallel cohorts, one of patients with type‐1 von Willebrand disease (VWD‐1) and one of healthy controls (HC). Patients/Methods We enrolled 1098 subjects, 482 of whom had inherited platelet disorders (196 IPFD and 286 inherited platelet number disorders [IT]) from 17 countries. Results IPFD patients had significantly higher bleeding score (BS; median 9) than VWD‐1 patients (median 5), a higher number of hemorrhagic symptoms (4 versus 3), and higher percentage of patients with clinically relevant symptoms (score > 2). The ISTH‐BAT showed excellent discrimination power between IPFD and HC (0.9 < area under the curve [AUC] < 1), moderate (0.7 < AUC < 0.9) between IPFD and VWD‐1 and between IPFD and inherited thrombocytopenia (IT), while it was inaccurate (AUC ≤ 0.7) in discriminating IT from HC. Conclusions The ISTH‐BAT allows to efficiently discriminate IPFD from HC, while it has lower accuracy in distinguishing IPFD from VWD‐1. Therefore, the ISTH‐BAT appears useful for identifying subjects requiring laboratory evaluation for a suspected IPFD once VWD is preliminarily excluded.