Journal of periodontology
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Journal of periodontology · May 2003
Meta AnalysisEvidence-based mucogingival therapy. Part 2: Ordinary and individual patient data meta-analyses of surgical treatment of recession using complete root coverage as the outcome variable.
The literature (1970-2000) on the outcome of surgical root coverage has been revised and summarized in a companion paper. The overall conclusion was that the various procedures are effective, but it was not possible to determine which procedure was best indicated in different clinical conditions. In this study, meta-analysis techniques were used to seek evidence for guiding clinical decisions when planning root coverage surgery. The aim of this study was to illustrate the differences between meta-analyses applied to summarized and individual patient data (IPD) and to present suggestions for reducing the costs of IPD meta-analysis. ⋯ Few studies reported individual patient data; they are a valuable contribution to clinical decision making, but IPD published in the literature are still insufficient to provide a reliable guide for clinical decision making. Therefore, decisive steps should be taken to facilitate the publication of IPD, in electronic format, whenever a clinical study is published in a leading journal.