Uses of maxillary sinus lateral wall bony window in an open window sinus lift procedure: literature review.

AIM: To review all of the possible uses for maxillary sinus lateral wall bony window in an open maxillary sinus lift procedure and to evaluate the influence of each method to the rate of sinus membrane perforations.

METHODS: A systematic literature review was performed of randomized control studies in English identified in MEDLINE (PubMed) and Cochrane online databases, published between 2007.09.01 and 2017.09.01. Surgeries had to be performed in vivo, for patients over 18 years old. A study had to have at least 10 sinus lifting procedures, had to detail how the bony window was used and had to report the number of Schneiderian membrane perforations.

RESULTS: 922 publications were found, out of which 68 were selected for qualitative assessment. 29 of them were selected for quantitative assessment. 4 distinct uses for bony window were found: bony window is elevated into the sinus cavity under the membrane; removed and discarded; repositioned to its original position after the surgery; used as a graft material for sinus lift.

CONCLUSIONS: there is a statistically significant difference of sinus membrane perforations between different uses of the lateral bony window of an open sinus lift procedure. However, due to the lack of publications that investigate the effects of different bony window usage methods, clinical recommendations cannot be drawn from current data.