Cyanoacrylate and hyaluronic acid combination on palatal donor site management after de-epithelialized graft harvesting.

Background: Although soft tissue substitutes showed promising improvement in the past decade, epithelialized gingival graft (EGG) is still widely used in periodontal plastic surgery applications. Donor site management after EGG harvesting has been challenging for clinicians. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cyanoacrylate, hyaluronic acid, and their combination in palatal donor site management after EGG harvesting.

Methods: Data from 89 patients were included and categorized as gelatin sponge (GS), gelatin sponge with either cyanoacrylate (GS + CY), hyaluronic acid (GS + HA), or both (GS + CY + HA). The data of pain perception (PP), quantity of analgesics (QA), secondary bleeding (SB), epithelization level (EL), and color match (CM) were assessed retrospectively.

Results: The GS + CY and GS + HA + CY groups showed lower PP scores compared to the GS and GS + HA groups (p < 0.05). The QA was higher in the GS group compared to the GS + CY and GS + HA + CY groups (p < 0.001). All study groups showed greater EL than GS group on day 7 (p < 0.001). On day 14, full EL was present in 81% of the patients in the GS + HA + CY group, which was higher than the other groups (p < 0.001). All study groups reported lower SB in the first 3 days, which was lower compared to the GS group (p < 0.001) and showed higher CM scores than the GS group on days 7 and 14 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: CY application reduces pain and analgesic intake and HA may support the wound healing with increased EL. Using the CY-HA combination provides additional benefits for donor site management.