Prevalence of oral manifestations of leprosy: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of oral manifestations of leprosy.
Study design: This SR with meta-analysis was reported according to the PRISMA guidelines and included cross-sectional studies by two independent reviewers in two phases, who reported bacilloscopic-confirmed oral manifestations of leprosy. Studies were selected based on predetermined eligibility criteria. Searches in 6 (six) main databases were performed, such as PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS/BVS, and LIVIVO, in addition to the gray literature. The risk of bias was assessed using the JBI Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies and the quantitative synthesis of the data was performed using the Jamovi 2.3 application.
Results: Ten studies were included and the meta-analysis was performed with 917 patients with different types of leprosy. The overall prevalence of oral alterations was 6.0% (95% IC, 0.02 to 0.11; I2 = 97.01%; Q=75.56), with plaques (27.2%), infiltrations (18.1%), and macules (15.1%) being the most prevalent fundamental lesions, especially in multibacillary patients.
Conclusions: Even though there is not an oral pathognomonic lesion of leprosy, this infectious disease can manifest in oral tissues in different ways, depending mainly on the leprosy type and stage of treatment.