Abstract
Introduction: There is no study on the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid (HA) placement either with or without absorbable collagen sponge (ACS) in reducing or preventing bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaws (BRONJ). This preliminary animal study examined the efficacy of this clinically important treatment.
Methods: For simulating BRONJ, zoledronic acid was administered to 40 rats for 5 weeks. Two weeks later, a right first molar was extracted from each rat. The rats were randomized into four groups of socket treatments: control (empty extraction socket) or with sockets filled with ACS, HA, or HA+ACS (n=4×10). After 2 weeks, 5 rats in each group were sacrificed and subjected to histopathologic and histomorphometric evaluation. Eight weeks postsurgically, the rest of rats were euthanized and histologically examined. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the four treatments at each time point (α=0.05)