Grafting materials for alveolar cleft reconstruction -a systematic review

Abstract: Aim: The aim of this literature study was to systematically review the scientific evidence on the most effective donor sites and/or bone substitute material for secondary alveolar cleft grafting in alveolar cleft patients. Material and method: In order to acquire a systematic and transparent reporting this literature review was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. The literature search was performed in the following four databases; PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science and Scopus.The quality of the included studies was assessed using the revised Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool (RoB 2 tool). Result: The search identified 4754 studies. Five RCT studies was included in this systematic review and assessed different donor site or bone substitute materials. Two studies showed low risk of bias and three moderate risk of bias. Only one study showed a statistically significant difference when comparing iliac bone to substitute material however all studies presented substitute materials with satisfactory results. Conclusion: According to the data from this systematic review no clear conclusion can be drawn regarding what the most effective bone donor site and/or tissue engineered bone substitute material to use in secondary bone grafts. Based on the available evidence iliac bone could still be regarded as a benchmark, but more research and RCT’s of high quality are required, especially for artificial bone substitute materials.