Quality assessment and meta-analysis of systemic tetracycline use in chronic adult periodontitis.

The use of systemic tetracycline in the treatment of periodontal disease has been controversial. To investigate this controversy, we performed a quality assessment and attempted to perform a meta-analysis of 13 published studies. We evaluated the quality of the study protocol and data analysis and presentation for each study. We were unable to combine data from the majority of studies due to heterogeneity of the outcomes evaluated and limitations in data reported in the individual studies. Therefore, only 2 studies were included in the quantitative meta-analysis. On a scale of 0-1, the mean score for this group of studies was 0.27 (+/- 0.19) for study protocol and 0.31 (+/- 0.11) for data analysis and presentation. Mean reduction in probing depth for the group treated with tetracycline plus scaling was 2.45 mm; for the group which received only scaling, 2.02 mm; for the group that received only tetracycline, 1.98 mm; and for the control group, 0.65 mm. We conclude that analysis of data from the published literature does not demonstrate that the use of systemic tetracycline is more beneficial than conventional treatment in the management of adult periodontal disease. More information is needed in order to perform an extensive meta-analysis of this subject.