Association of helicobacter pylori and oral lichen planus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Oral lichen planus (OLP) has been known as an inflammatory disease and might have an association with helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of H. pylori in patients with OLP. METHODS: In this review study, all articles with English abstracts were searched in the Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases up to May 2020. The searches were performed using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and keywords of "oral lichen planus" or "oral lichenoid reaction" or "OLP" and "Helicobacter pylori" or "H. pylori". The heterogeneity percentage obtained during different studies was evaluated by the Cochrane (Q) test and I2 statistic. The analyses were performed by the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software version 2.0. RESULTS: Amongst the 16 articles obtained after the abstract review, 7 proper articles fitted to our study were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results showed that the incidence of H. pylori in patients with OLP was 2.9 times greater than that in the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Based on the results of previous studies, H. pylori increases the risk of OLP lesions. Therefore, testing for H. pylori infection in these patients before starting routine treatment is recommended.