Guided bone regeneration with titanium membranes: a clinical study.

Guided bone regeneration using barrier membranes is useful in bone augmentation. Because the commonly used polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Gore-Tex (R), WL Gore, Flagstaff, AZ, USA) membranes or resorbable membranes tend to collapse, more stable membranes are desirable. A titanium membrane (FRIOS(R) BoneShield, Friatec, Mannheim, Germany) was evaluated in a clinical study of 52 patients. Most of them had particulate bone grafts or phycogene hydroxyapatite (Algipore(R), Friatec, Mannheim, Germany) or both stabilized with titanium membranes. In 78 procedures, 23 membranes (29%) became exposed, but only seven of these (9%) led to failure of the graft with a considerable loss of augmented material. The time interval between operation and possibly exposure was responsible for the result. Early exposures (within a few weeks) led to poor formation of new bone within the grafts, whereas if exposure was later, results were as good as in procedures in which the membranes did not become exposed. Copyright 2000 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.