Glow-discharge pretreated implants combined with temporary bone tissue ischemia.

The aim of present experimental study, was to investigate whether glow-discharge pretreated screws improved the implant take if initial blood flow was prevented in the implant bed. Glow discharge treatment has in previous studies in soft tissue showed to be advantageous for biological adhesion, presumably due to an increase in surface energy. In bone tissue, so far, positive effects of glow discharge have not been reported. One reason for this could be that circulating blood would immediately contaminate the implant surface and lower the high energy state. To prevent circulating blood to reach the implant bed, we used an infant pneumatic cuff placed on the right leg of the rabbit. The pressure was 300 mm Hg during 2.5 hours. The left leg served as control. After 5 minutes when there were no longer a noticeable pulse, 40 glow-discharged pretreated screws were inserted in the tibia. After 7 weeks the animals were sacrificed. There were no significant differences in torque measurements or histomorphometric analysis between control and test implants.