title: Should oral anticoagulant therapy be continued during dental extraction? A meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral anticoagulation therapy is widely used to reduce the risks of thromboembolism. However, the therapy increases the risk of hemorrhage during the surgical procedures. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the bleeding risk of patients continuing or discontinuing oral anticoagulant therapy while undergoing dental extractions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), were searched in March, 2016. Relevant articles were screened by two independent reviewers under our inclusion criteria. Quality was evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses were conducted with fixed and random effects models as appropriate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six studies (with a total of 591 patients) were included in our meta-analysis. Our results showed that there was no significant difference in the bleeding risk between patients continuing or discontinuing oral anticoagulant therapy while undergoing dental extractions (risk ratio, 1.31; 95 % CI, 0.79, 2.14; P > 0.05). There was also no significant difference in bleeding risk 1 day (risk ratio, 0.91; 95 % CI, 0.35, 2.37; P > 0.05) and 7 days (risk ratio, 1.47; 95 % CI, 0.83, 2.59; P > 0.05) after the dental extraction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Under current studies and evidence, it appears that patients continuing oral anticoagulant therapy do not have an increased risk of bleeding after dental extractions compared to patients who discontinue oral anticoagulant therapy.
authors: Department of Stomatology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, China.
authors: Shuo
authors: S
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Stomatology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, China.
authors: Quan
authors: Q
authors: Shi
authors: Department of Stomatology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, China.
authors: Jinglong
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Stomatology, Chinese People's Liberation Army 322 Hospital, 2 Yunzhong Road, Datong, 037000, China.
authors: Jinru
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Department of Stomatology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, China. newxj@hotmail.com.
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Xu
mesh_terms: D000925:Anticoagulants; D006801:Humans; D014081:Tooth Extraction
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants
keywords: Bleeding; Dental extraction; Meta-analysis; Oral anticoagulant therapy