Apical surgery vs apical surgery with simultaneous orthograde retreatment: A prospective cohort clinical study of teeth affected by persistent periapical lesion

Aim: This prospective clinical study analyzed the 24-month outcome of conventional apical surgery retro-filled with calcium-silicate cement versus apical surgery with simultaneous orthograde retreatment by means of clinical and radiographic criteria. Materials and methods: This study included 83 teeth affected by persistent periapical lesions in 68 patients. Mean age was 52 years (median = 51 years; range 19–81 years). Twenty-eight cases were treated with apical surgery, 16 cases with apical surgery with simultaneous orthograde retreatment and 39 cases with orthograde retreatment in previously treated teeth established as control group. Periapical index score (PAI) was used as radiographic criteria. Teeth were examined at 6 months, 1 and 2 years and classified as healed (without any symptoms and PAI ≤ 2), healing (without any symptoms and PAI = 3) or diseased (with symptoms or PAI ≥ 4 and not functional) on the basis of radiographic and clinical criteria. At 24 months evaluation, healed and healing were considered as success and diseased and fracture as failure. Multilevel GLM model and an ordered logistic regression as statistical analysis was made with level of significance set at p < 0.05. Results: Total drop-out was 7% (n = 6). After 6–9 months, 6 teeth (3 from apical surgery, 2 from simultaneous treatment and 1 from orthograde retreatment) were extracted for root fracture. Twenty-four-month success rate of apical surgery group was 78% (n = 17), apical surgery with simultaneous orthograde retreatment presented 81% (n = 10) and orthograde retreatment success was 80% (n = 24). There was no statistically difference between the groups at 24 months (p = 0.890). Conclusions: Both surgical techniques revealed a high percentage of healing, similar to that reported by previous studies. Apical surgery with simultaneous orthograde retreatment showed a faster healing after 12 months comparing to the control group.