The prophylactic meatal antrostomy and risk of sinusitis among patients receiving zygomatic implants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Zygomatic implants (ZIs) have shown promise in reconstruction of defective arches. Sinusitis is the most common complication following ZIs placement, causing impaired quality of life (QoL) and even implantation failure. Whether prophylactic meatal antrostomy is effective to reduce the risk of sinusitis after ZIs is unclear.

Methods

This study was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) guidelines with a prespecified Prospero registration (registration ID: CRD42024615186). The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for cohorts or Cochrane Risk of Bias (ROB) for trials was used to evaluate primary study quality.

Results

1 prospective cohort study and 1 randomized clinical trial with 80 patients receiving ZI surgery were enrolled in this study. We observed a significant reduction in the risk of sinusitis with meatal antrostomy (OR=0.22, 95 %CI:0.05–0.98). The results from the 2 studies were consistent (I² statistic for heterogeneity=0 %, Q test p > 0.05).

Conclusion

The present study suggests that prophylactic meatal antrostomy during ZI implantation surgery reduced the risk of postoperative sinusitis. However, limited primary studies with broad confidence interval and invasive nature of meatal antrostomy warrant cautious implementation. We call for higher-quality prospective studies incorporating and standardized outcome measures to validate these findings.