- Eleven studies were retrieved that met inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Studies differed with regards to the type of antibiotic and steroid therapy used. Timing, dosage and mode of administration were also different between studies.
- The effect of antibiotic/steroid therapy for post-operative pain was generally inconclusive: only half the studies demonstrated an effect.
- Antibiotic/steroid therapy had no effect on either primary or secondary hemorrhage.
- The majority of studies were of poor methodological quality. Distinctive methodological problems included: - Use of subjective pain measures that have not bee previously validated - Dependence of results to sample size, (which may have been too small to detect a difference between groups). - Only one study was of high methodological quality, with low potential for bias.