Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the efficacies of clarithromycin and metronidazole in the treatment of chronic periodontitis,and to provide the evidence-based medical evidence for the rational use of drugs in the treatment of chronic periodontitis.Methods: CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, ScienceDirect and EMbase database from inception to June, 2017 were searched by computer for the literatures about the treatment of clarithromycin and metronidazole for chronic periodontitis. Two reviewers independently screened the literatures, extracted the data and evaluated the bias risk of included studies. Then Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.Results: A total of 5 randomized controlled trial(RCT)involving 516 patients with chronic periodontitis were included. Subgroup analysis was performed according to the follow-up time. Compared with metronidazole group,the probing depth(PD) reduction,attachment loss (AL) gain,and sulcus bleeding index (SBI) reduction of the patients with chronic periodontitis in clarithromycin group at 1 month and 3 months after follow-up were more significant;the differences in PD, AL, and SBI were significant(MD=-0.53, 95%CI:-0.67-0.39, P<0.01;MD=-0.31, 95% CI:-0.39—-0.24, P<0.01;MD=-0.23, 95% CI:-0.29—-0.16, P<0.01).Conclusion: Systemic antibiotic use of clarithromycin in the treatment of the patients with chronic periodontitis after non-surgical periodontal therapy has a significant additional effect than metronidazole in short-term observation.

Key words: clarithromycin, metronidazole, chronic periodontitis, non-surgical periodontal therapy, Meta-analysis