Clinical evaluation of antibiotic-supplemented bone allograft.

Antibiotic-supplemented bone allograft (ASBA) was originally developed for treatment of combat-acquired, avulsive defects of the oral and maxillofacial skeleton. Earlier findings in experimental wound models showed that ASBA resulted in significantly improved wound repair of infected osseous defects when compared with conventional treatment. In this study, ASBA was evaluated in paired, comparable, mandibular third molar sockets and compared with the findings following conventional surgical removal. The results of this assessment showed that wound healing was significantly improved with the use of ASBA. Evidence produced by this clinical evaluation of ASBA suggests its potential use for other surgical bone defects when grafting is precluded by the risk of infection as a result of contamination by oral flora.