Table 3.
Grades of recommendation, assessment, development and evaluation approach summarizing the evidence.
| Certainty assessment | No of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Extra-short implants (≤ 6 mm) | Longer implants (≥ 8 mm) | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) | ||
| Survival rate (implant level) (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 22 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousa | None | 1193/1243 (96.0%) | 1290/1333 (96.8%) | RR 0.991 (0.974 to 1.009) | 9 fewer per 1000 (from 25 fewer to 9 more) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
| MBL (measured from IP) (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 19 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Seriousb | Not serious | Serious | None | 962 | 953 | – | MD 0.22 mm lower (0.277 lower to 0.164 lower) |
⨁⨁◯◯ Low |
Critical |
| MBL (measured from PR) (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 13 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious | None | 404 | 485 | – | MD 0.016 mm higher (0.036 lower to 0.068 higher) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
critical |
| Biological complications rate (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 14 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Seriousc | Not serious | Not serious | None | 50/460 (10.9%) | 161/520 (31.0%) | RR 0.321 (0.243 to 0.422) | 210 fewer per 1000 (from 234 to 179 fewer) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Important |
| Prosthesis complications rate (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 53/386 (13.7%) | 48/379 (12.7%) | RR 1.092 (0.777 to 1.535) | 12 more per 1000 (from 28 fewer to 68 more) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Important |
| Survival rate (patient level) (follow up: range 1 years to 5 years) | ||||||||||||
| 18 | Randomised trials | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 514/566 (90.8%) | 592/632 (93.7%) | RR 0.970 (0.938 to 1.003) | 28 fewer per 1000 (from 58 fewer to 3 more) |
⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
Critical |
Question: Extra-short implants (≤ 6 mm) compared to longer implants (≥ 8 mm) for partially or totally edentulous patients.
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence. High certainty: We are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect. Moderate certainty: We are moderately confident in the effect estimate: The true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Low certainty: Our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: The true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect. Very low certainty: We have very little confidence in the effect estimate: The true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect. Generated by GRADEpro GDT web application, http://gradepro.org.
CI: confidence interval; RR: risk ratio; MD: mean difference.
aSmall simple size (less than OIS), CI of RR included 1.
bHeterogeneity across the studies, I2 = 58.10%, CI for I2 = 30.3% to 74.8%.
cHeterogeneity across the studies, I2 = 48.8%, CI for I2 = 5.1% to 72.39%.
dSmall simple size (less than OIS), CI of RR included 1.