Public Library of Science, PLoS ONE, 6(10), p. e0129060, 2015
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129060
Full text: Download
Objectives Periodontal treatment might reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes. The efficacy of periodontal treatment to prevent preterm birth, low birth weight, and perinatal mortality was evaluated using meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis. Methods An existing systematic review was updated and meta-analyses performed. Risk of bias, heterogeneity, and publication bias were evaluated, and meta-regression performed. Subgroup analysis was used to compare different studies with low and high risk of bias and different populations, i.e., risk groups. Trial sequential analysis was used to assess risk of random errors. Results Thirteen randomized clinical trials evaluating 6283 pregnant women were meta-analyzed. Four and nine trials had low and high risk of bias, respectively. Overall, periodontal treatment had no significant effect on preterm birth (odds ratio [95% confidence interval] 0.79 [0.57-1.10]) or low birth weight (0.69 [0.43-1.13]). Trial sequential analysis demonstrated that futility was not reached for any of the outcomes. For populations with moderate occurrence (