Reduction in the incidence of alveolar osteitis in patients treated with the SaliCept Patch, containing Acemannan Hydrogel

Purpose: In the present study, we compared the incidence of alveolar osteitis (AO) in patients treated with either clindamycin-soaked Gelfoam (Pharmacia and Upjohn Co, Kalamazoo, MI) or SaliCept Patches (Carrington Laboratories, Inc, Irving, TX). The SaliCept Patch is a freeze-dried pledget that contains Acemannan Hydrogel (Carrington Laboratories) obtained from the clear inner gel of Aloe vera L. Patients and Methods: A retrospective evaluation was performed of the records of 587 patients (1,031 sockets) whose extraction sites had been treated with clindamycin-soaked Gelfoam. A prospective trial was conducted in which 607 patients (1,064 sockets) had 2 SaliCept Patches placed immediately after extraction. The same surgeon treated all patients. Results: Analysis restricted to mandibular third molar sites showed that 78 of 975 sites (8.0%) in the Gelfoam group developed AO, whereas only 11 of 958 sites (1.1%) in the SaliCept group developed AO (P<.0001). Further analysis of all extraction sites revealed that the incidence of AO in the Gelfoam. group was 7.6% compared with 1.1% in the SaliCept-treated group (P<.0001). Conclusions: The study results suggest that the SaliCept Patch significantly reduces the incidence of AO compared with clindamycin-soaked Gelfoam. (C) 2002 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.