Efficacy of platelet concentrates in pulpotomy - a systematic review

The main purpose of the present systematic review was to evaluate the efficacy of platelet concentrates in pulpotomy of human teeth. Our systematic search included Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, key journals, and review articles; the date of the last search was July 30, 2017. We graded the methodological quality of the studies by Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Four randomized controlled trails were included in the present systematic review. The number of study participants ranged from 28 to 50, with a mean of 45.5. The age of study participants ranged between 4 and 25 years. In three of the included studies, platelet-rich fibrin (autologous) was used and in one study lyophilized freeze-dried platelet (allogenic) was used as pulpotomy material. Calcium hydroxide and mineral trioxide aggregate were used in control groups. The quality assessment rated three studies as being of fair quality and one study as poor quality. Two of the included studies showed a 100% success of pulpotomy with platelet concentrates and two studies showed more than 80% of success, but the difference between control group and platelet concentrates group was not statistically significant. To conclude, the number of publications that met all inclusion criteria was found to be very limited and no significant difference was reported in the studies comparing platelet concentrates with other materials in pulpotomy. The present results point to the need for high-quality randomized controlled trials in further research.