TY - JOUR A1 - Straub, Anton A1 - Brands, Roman A1 - Borgmann, Anna A1 - Vollmer, Andreas A1 - Hohm, Julian A1 - Linz, Christian A1 - Müller-Richter, Urs A1 - Kübler, Alexander C. A1 - Hartmann, Stefan T1 - Free skin grafting to reconstruct donor sites after radial forearm flap harvesting: a prospective study with platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Reconstruction of the donor site after radial forearm flap harvesting is a common procedure in maxillofacial plastic surgery. It is normally carried out with split-thickness or full-thickness free skin grafts. Unfortunately, free skin graft transplantation faces wound healing impairments such as necrosis, (partial) graft loss, or tendon exposure. Several studies have investigated methods to reduce these impairments and demonstrated improvements if the wound bed is optimised, for example, through negative-pressure wound therapy or vacuum-assisted closure. However, these methods are device-dependent, expansive, and time-consuming. Therefore, the application of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) to the wound bed could be a simple, cost-effective, and device-independent method to optimise wound-bed conditions instead. In this study, PRF membranes were applied between the wound bed and skin graft. Results of this study indicate improvements in the PRF versus non-PRF group (93.44% versus 86.96% graft survival, p = 0.0292). PRF applied to the wound bed increases graft survival and reduces impairments. A possible explanation for this is the release of growth factors, which stimulate angiogenesis and fibroblast migration. Furthermore, the solid PRF membranes act as a mechanical barrier (“lubrication” layer) to protect the skin graft from tendon motion. The results of this study support the application of PRF in donor-site reconstruction with free skin grafts. KW - platelet-rich fibrin KW - free skin grafts KW - radial forearm flap KW - donor-site morbidity Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-278854 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 11 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Straub, Anton A1 - Vollmer, Andreas A1 - Lâm, Thiên-Trí A1 - Brands, Roman C. A1 - Stapf, Maximilian A1 - Scherf-Clavel, Oliver A1 - Bittrich, Max A1 - Fuchs, Andreas A1 - Kübler, Alexander C. A1 - Hartmann, Stefan T1 - Evaluation of advanced platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) as a bio-carrier for ampicillin/sulbactam JF - Clinical Oral Investigations N2 - Objectives Mechanisms of wound healing are often impaired in patients with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ). According to the guidelines for the treatment of this disease, early surgical intervention is indicated. However, surgery often faces complications such as wound healing disorders. The application of platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) after necrosectomy between bone and mucosa may constitute a promising approach to improve surgical results. An aspect that was not investigated until now is that PRF acts as a “bio-carrier” for antibiotics previously applied intravenously. Materials and methods We investigated the antimicrobial properties of PRF in 24 patients presenting ONJ undergoing systemic antibiosis with ampicillin/sulbactam. We measured the concentration of ampicillin/sulbactam in plasma and PRF and performed agar diffusion tests. Ampicillin/sulbactam was applied intravenously to the patient 10 minutes for blood sampling for PRF. No further incorporation of patients’ blood or PRF product with antibiotic drugs was obtained. Four healthy patients served as controls. Results Our results revealed that PRF is highly enriched with ampicillin/sulbactam that is released to the environment. The antibiotic concentration in PRF was comparable to the plasma concentration of ampicillin/sulbactam. The inhibition zone (IZ) of PRF was comparable to the standard ampicillin/sulbactam discs used in sensitivity testing. Conclusions The results of our study demonstrated that PRF is a reliable bio-carrier for systemic applied antibiotics and exhibits a large antimicrobial effect. Clinical relevance We describe a clinically useful feature of PRF as a bio-carrier for antibiotics. Especially when applied to poorly perfused tissues and bone such as in ONJ, the local release of antibiotics can reduce wound healing disorders like infections. KW - osteonecrosis of the jaw KW - osteoradionecrosis KW - antiresorptive drug-related osteonecrosis of the jaw KW - ARONJ KW - oral microbiome KW - agar diffusion test Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-324515 VL - 26 IS - 12 ER -