Clinical and radiographic outcomes of lateral sinus floor elevation: a retrospective study.

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of lateral sinus floor elevation (LSFE). A total of 347 medium rough surface implants were placed in both xenogenic bone and natural bone in 103 patients. A two-stage surgical technique was performed with a lateral window approach followed by a healing period of 9 months prior to implant placement. Patients were analysed with regard to pre- and post-augmentation bone height data (Group A), levels of mar- ginal bone (Group B) and implant survival rates/complications. A total of 6 implants were lost in the present investigation, of which two were still osseoin- tegrated, albeit mechanically damaged.The implant survival rate was 99.0% considering those engaging BioOss, and the corresponding figure for implants placed in natural bone was 96.2%. The average follow-up time was 2.5 years.The mean preoperative bone height was 3.8 mm and the mean postoperative bone height was 13.7 mm. It may be advocated that preoperative bone heights exceeding 7 mm are not indicative of LSFE treatment and that preoperative bone heights of 4-7 mm may imply alternative treatment options. A group of subjects, corresponding to 16.5%- of the patient material, had some sort of postoperative complication. One may conclude that LSFE is a predictable and safe treatment procedure, with a high implant survival rate. LSFE resulted in gained bone height in the range of 10 mm.