The effect of chronic temporomandibular joint dislocation: frequency on the success of autologous blood injection.

Autologous blood injection (ABI) is a conservative, non-surgical method of treating chronic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dislocation. Although many clinicians have reported positive results, procedural success has not been evaluated according to dislocation type. This study investigated the success of ABI on chronic TMJ dislocation with respect to dislocation frequency. ABI was used to treat 27 joints in 17 patients. The patients were divided into two groups based on dislocation frequency: (A) at least twice a week on different days and (B) at least twice a day. The procedure was successful in 13 of the 15 injected joints (86.6 %) in group A and six of the 12 injected joints (50 %) in group B. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.03814). Autologous blood injection had limited success in patients with very frequent dislocation, while it was useful for treating less frequently dislocated TMJs.