ReviewFrontiers in surgery2026
The efficacy of tonsillectomy in the management of PFAPA syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Frontiers in surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate tonsillectomy's effectiveness in treating PFAPA syndrome through a systematic review and meta-analysis, providing evidence to guide clinical decisions and improve patient outcomes. Data source: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases, covering the period from their inception up to October 2024. Methods: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing surgical vs. conservative treatment was conducted to evaluate the postoperative complete remission rate, duration of fever, and frequency of fever episodes. Binary outcomes were analyzed using odds ratios (OR) and continuous outcomes using mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals. The DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model was used, with the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman (HKSJ) adjustment, prediction intervals, and leave-one-out analysis as sensitivity analyses to address the small number of included studies. Results: Three randomized controlled trials (81 patients) met the inclusion criteria. Tonsillectomy significantly improved postoperative complete remission rates (pooled OR = 42.21, 95% CI: 9.34-190.74, Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that tonsillectomy can provide significant benefits for children with PFAPA, particularly in achieving complete remission and reducing episode frequency. However, evidence on fever duration remains inconclusive, whereas the reduction in episode frequency was statistically robust. Given the small number of included studies, these results should be considered hypothesis-generating. Future large-scale, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.