Does HIV infection affect the survival of dental implants? A systematic review and meta-analysis

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Immunosuppression and coinfections associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection pose a relative contraindication for dental implant therapy. However, although implants have been placed in patients with HIV with reasonable success, how HIV infection affects their survival is unclear. PURPOSE: The purpose of this systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was to analyze the data on the survival of dental implants in patients with HIV. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A search for relevant articles published up to November 2019 was performed in PubMed/Medline and Cochrane databases, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Google Scholar. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were adopted for the conduct of the systematic review. The most pertinent data were extracted and pooled for qualitative and quantitative analyses with 95% confidence intervals. Heterogeneity was analyzed by using I-squared statistics. RESULTS: A total of 8 studies involving 411 individuals with HIV and 1109 implants were included in the meta-analysis. The mean follow-up period was 2.8 years. A pooled estimate of 95% of implant survival rate with 95% confidence interval (92% to 96%) was noted. Heterogeneity across the 8 studies was found to be 41% with moderate true variability. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review demonstrated that HIV infection does not pose a serious threat to implant survival on short-term evaluation, but the evidence is of low quality.

• Population(s)
  • General HIV+ population
  • Other