Inclusion of zero total event trials in meta-analyses maintains analytic consistency and incorporates all available data

BackgroundMeta-analysis handles randomized trials with no outcome events in both treatment and control arms inconsistently, including them when risk difference (RD) is the effect measure but excluding them when relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) are used. This study examined the influence of such trials on pooled treatment effects.MethodsAnalysis with and without zero total event trials of three illustrative published meta-analyses with a …