The influence of palatal harvesting technique on the donor site vascular injury: A splitâ mouth comparative cadaver study

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of two harvesting approaches on the donor site vascular injury.MethodsA splitâ mouth cadaver study was designed on 21 fresh donor heads. Every hemiâ palate was assigned to receive the trapâ door harvesting technique (TDT) or the epithelialized free gingival graft harvesting technique (FGGT). A soft tissue graft was harvested from each side for histology analyses. Betadine solution was used to inject the external carotid artery and a collagen sponge was positioned over the harvested area to compare the amount of â leakage.â ResultsThe mean leakage observed was 16.56 ± 3.01 µL in the FGGTâ harvested sites, and 69.21 ± 7.08 µL for the TDT group, a ratio of 4.18 (P < 0.01). Regression analyses demonstrated a trend for more leakage at thinner palatal sites for the FGGT group (P = 0.09), and a statistically significant correlation for the TDTâ harvest sites (P = 0.02). Additionally, a shallow palatal vault height (PVH) was associated with a higher leakage in both harvesting groups (P = 0.02). The histomorphometric analyses revealed that grafts harvested with TDT exhibited a significantly higher mean number of medium (ø = 0.1 to 0.5 mm, P = 0.03), and large vessels (ø â ¥ 0.5 mm, P = 0.02).ConclusionsWithin the limitations of the present research, the TDT resulted in a significantly higher leakage than the FGGT, which was also correlated with the histology analyses where a greater number of medium and large vessels were observed in the harvested grafts.