Comparison between two different local hemostatic methods for dental extractions in patients on dual antiplatelet therapy: a within-person, single-blind, randomized study.

Background: Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) provides additional risk reduction of ischemic events compared to aspirin monotherapy, at cost of higher bleeding risk. There are few data comparing new techniques for reducing bleeding after dental extractions in these patients.
Purpose: This study investigated the effectiveness of the HemCon Dental Dressing (HDD) compared to oxidized cellulose gauze.
Materials and Methods: This randomized study included 60 patients on DAPT who required at least two dental extractions (120 procedures). Each surgical site was randomized to HDD or oxidized regenerated cellulose gauze as the local hemostatic method. Intra-oral bleeding time was measured immediately after the dental extraction and represents our main endpoint for comparison of both hemostatic agents. Prolonged bleeding, platelet reactivity measured by Multiplate Analyser (ADPtest and ASPItest) and tissue healing comparison after 7 days were also investigated.
Results: Intra-oral bleeding time was lower in HDD compared with control (2 [2-5] vs. 5 [2-8] minutes, P=0.001). Prolonged postoperative bleeding was observed in 7 cases (11.6%), all of them successfully managed with local sterile gauze pressure. More HDD treated sites presented better healing when compared with control sites [21 (36.8%) vs. 5 (8.8%), P=0.03]. There was poor correlation between platelet reactivity and intra-oral bleeding time.
Conclusions: In patients on DAPT, HDD resulted in a lower intra-oral bleeding time compared to oxidized cellulose gauze after dental extractions. Moreover, HDD also seems to improve healing conditions.
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