Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo following closed sinus floor elevation procedure: mallet osteotomes vs. screwable osteotomes. A triple blind randomized controlled trial

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Although rare, there is a risk of transient vertigo following a closed sinus floor elevation.

Main

Sammartino G, Mariniello M et al. Clin Oral Implants Res 2011; 22: 669–672

In order to augment bone vertically to accommodate a maxillary implant, patients can receive a closed sinus floor elevation (Summer's technique). During this operation, canaliths can become dislodged in the middle ear that result in vertigo. This has a reported incidence of 2%. In this study, two surgeons carried out a closed sinus lift using either a mallet osteotome or screwable osteotome (98 patients in both groups). Otolaryngologists then assessed for vertigo using, among other tests, the Dix–Hallpike manoeuvre. Only when the closed sinus floor elevation procedure was carried out with a mallet osteotome was vertigo observed in 3 patients. The vertigo was resolved with the Epley re-positioning manoeuvre. For Dix–Hallpike and Epley re-positioning manoeuvres, access YouTube.