SynthesisClinical and experimental dental research2026
Clinical Outcomes of Adjunctive Corticosteroid Therapy Versus Standard Treatment Alone in Patients With Bacterial Facial Infections: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Clinical and experimental dental research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundObjectives: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of adjunctive corticosteroid versus standard treatment alone in facial infections.
methodsEligibility criteria: Included clinical comparative studies (randomized or non-randomized) evaluating adjunctive corticosteroids versus standard care in patients with bacterial facial infections such as odontogenic/facial space infections, dental abscesses, orbital cellulitis, periorbital cellulitis, and Ludwig's angina. INFORMATION SOURCES: An unrestricted literature search of five databases was conducted up to December 15, 2025. Risk of bias: The quality assessment of the studies was conducted using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (ROBINS-I) for non-randomized and a new risk of bias tool (RoB-2) for randomized studies. SYNTHESIS OF
resultsRandom effects meta-analyses using mean difference (MD) or standardized mean differences (SMDs) were performed, followed by sensitivity analyses, and assessment of the quality of evidence using GRADE.
resultsIncluded studies: Fifteen comparative studies (three randomized and 12 non-randomized) including 13,905 patients with bacterial facial infections (61.5% male) were included. SYNTHESIS OF
resultsLow-certainty evidence showed that the use of adjunctive steroids significantly reduced hospital stay compared with standard treatment alone (10 studies; MD = -1.61 [-3.17, -0.05] days; p = 0.04; I DISCUSSION: Limitations of evidence: Certainty of evidence was low to very low for all outcomes, with hospital stay rated low due to methodological limitations, high risk of bias, and the predominance of non-randomized studies.
interpretationThe low level of evidence suggests that adjunctive corticosteroids may provide a reduction in hospital length of stay for patients with bacterial facial infections. Further well-designed, randomized, and prospective comparative studies are needed to confirm these findings. PROPSERO Registration Number: (CRD420261329331).
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