Autoinflammatory & rare systemic diseases
Surgical versus medical management of PFAPA (Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis): a systematic review and network meta-analysis
Pooled result · Clinical remission or symptom resolution (primary NMA)Result — go to the resultOR for clinical remission or symptom resolution 1.10 95% CI 0.21–5.69Authors' conclusion
Current evidence is insufficient to draw reliable comparative conclusions regarding the relative effectiveness of surgical and medical management for PFAPA.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with PFAPA syndrome
- Participants
- 2,048 patients16 studies
- Comparison
- Surgical vs medical management
- Outcome
- Clinical remission or symptom resolution
Methodological detailsrandomized and non-randomized comparative studies, random-effects models, RoB 2 and ROBINS-I, GRADE, Medline, Embase, and CENTRAL searched through November 2025
- Randomized and non-randomized comparative studies
- Random-effects models
- RoB 2 and ROBINS-I
- GRADE
- Medline, Embase, and CENTRAL searched through November 2025
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Clinical remission or symptom resolution (primary network meta-analysis (NMA))
OR for clinical remission or symptom resolution
1.10
95% CI 0.21–5.69
Surgicalvs Medical
OR for clinical remission or symptom resolution 1.10 (95% CI 0.21–5.69)
Further pooled results
Exploratory comparisons of individual treatments
- Trends favoring some medical therapies over surgery; CIs wide, certainty of evidence very low
Age and episode duration as effect modifiers (Bayesian sensitivity analyses and meta-regressions)
- Age and episode duration not identified as meaningful effect modifiers
Original publication
Surgical versus medical management of PFAPA (Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, Adenitis): a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Pediatr Rheumatol Online J. Published 13 July 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →