Influence of apical patency in endodontic treatment outcome - A systematic review of clinical studies

Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the influence of maintaining apical patency (AP) in endodontic treatment outcome.

Methodology: An electronic database search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, LIVIVO, LILACS, and EBSCO host from inception till July 2024. The data from the included articles were extracted and the quality was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration tool and ROBINS-I tool.

Results: Five articles were included for the qualitative synthesis, and all the included articles were determined to have a low risk of bias. Maintaining the AP resulted in two-fold increase in the healing outcome with long-term follow-up.

Conclusion: It can be concluded from this systematic review that maintaining AP is likely to enhance the endodontic treatment outcome. However, more long-term clinical studies are required to further evaluate the possible influence of AP.

Registration: The protocol of this review was registered in the PROSPERO database with registration number: CRD42022374966.