Clinical Oral Investigations

Simultaneous GBR with a 3D preformed PLGA membrane: 87% bone gain maintained at 5 months, zero exposures

Son SH, Lim KO, Han SH

Source study: Simultaneous implant placement with guided bone regeneration for horizontal ridge augmentation using a 3D-preformed resorbable PLGA membrane: A prospective single-arm clinical study. — Clinical Oral Investigations

In brief

  • In this 21-site single-arm study, mean horizontal bone augmentation was 2.99 mm with 87.2% of hard tissue gain preserved at 5 months.
  • The membrane required no fixation devices, potentially reducing procedural complexity in simultaneous-placement GBR cases.
  • No membrane exposures, infections, or wound dehiscences occurred across all treated sites in this short-term cohort.
  • Results are encouraging but limited: single arm, 20 patients, 5-month follow-up — comparative data against established membranes is still needed.

Guided bone regeneration (GBR) often hinges on the membrane: it must hold space, stay where it is put, and ideally not need a second surgery to come out. This prospective single-arm study tested a three-dimensional preformed resorbable PLGA membrane (3D-PRPM) for horizontal ridge augmentation, placed at the same time as the implant. Twenty patients with 21 localized ridge defects were treated, and cone-beam CT (CBCT) tracked the bone preoperatively, immediately after surgery, and at five months.

Mean horizontal bone augmentation was 2.99 mm, with hard tissue gain at five months of 2.64 mm and only 0.35 mm of resorption, a hard-tissue gain rate of 87.2%. Analysis of the bony envelope confirmed a real increase after augmentation, partial settling during healing, but ridge dimensions at five months still significantly above baseline. Crucially for a barrier, there were no membrane exposures, no infections, no wound dehiscences.

The appeal is practical: a preformed, fixation-free resorbable barrier that augments predictably and never has to be removed, simplifying a procedure that is often fiddly. The caveats are the obvious ones — twenty patients, single arm, five-month horizon — so this is an encouraging early signal rather than a verdict, and it wants comparison against established membranes over longer follow-up.

Why it matters in practice

A fixation-free resorbable membrane that holds space predictably and avoids a second removal surgery would simplify one of the more technique-sensitive steps in ridge augmentation; this early study suggests the geometry of a preformed 3D design may contribute to that stability, though clinicians should wait for controlled comparative trials before changing their membrane protocol.

This summary is automatically generated from the original abstract and curated by Dr. Ernesto Bruschi. Always refer to the original publication for clinical decisions.
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