AIM: Spiral family implants (SFIs) are a new type of implant fixture with a conical internal helix and a variable thread design. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of a series of SFIs. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 234 SFIs were placed in 86 patients (55 females and 31 males, median age 53 years) during the period between May 2004 and November 2007. The mean follow-up was 13 months. Several host, surgery, and implant-related factors were investigated, and the Kaplan Meier algorithm and the Cox regression were used to detect variables associated with the clinical outcome. RESULTS: Only nine out of 234 implants were lost (i.e., survival rate (SVR) of 96.2%) and no differences were detected among the studied variables. CONCLUSION: SFIs have a high SVR similar to those reported in previous studies on different implant types. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: SFIs demonstrated a very high primary stability which offers the potential for use of a specific implant device for immediate loading. However, additional studies are necessary to verify their outcome on the medium/long period.
AIM: Spiral family implants (SFIs) are a new type of implant fixture with a conical internal helix and a variable thread design. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of a series of SFIs. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A total of 234 SFIs were placed in 86 patients (55 females and 31 males, median age 53 years) during the period between May 2004 and November 2007. The mean follow-up was 13 months. Several host, surgery, and implant-related factors were investigated, and the Kaplan Meier algorithm and the Cox regression were used to detect variables associated with the clinical outcome. RESULTS: Only nine out of 234 implants were lost (i.e., survival rate (SVR) of 96.2%) and no differences were detected among the studied variables. CONCLUSION: SFIs have a high SVR similar to those reported in previous studies on different implant types. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: SFIs demonstrated a very high primary stability which offers the potential for use of a specific implant device for immediate loading. However, additional studies are necessary to verify their outcome on the medium/long period.