SynthesisPloS one2013
Safety of benzathine penicillin for preventing congenital syphilis: a systematic review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Severe adverse reactions to benzathine penicillin G in rheumatic heart disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Antibiotic therapy for adults with neurosyphilis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of antenatal syphilis screening and treatment for the prevention of congenital syphilis in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia: results of qualitative formative research.BMC health services research · 2017Trial
- Market landscape of penicillin for syphilis and rheumatic heart disease, WHO South-East Asia Region.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Clinical application of benzathine penicillin G as secondary prophylaxis and vaccines for patients with acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: A comprehensive review.International journal of cardiology. Congenital heart disease · 2026Review
- Treatment of Syphilis in Pregnancy and Congenital Syphilis: Current Evidence, Challenges, and Future Directions.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Low syphilis treatment rates and associated birth outcomes in pregnant women with and without HIV in Zambia: A cohort study.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026Article
- Epidemiological profile, completeness of notifications, and factors associated with the adequacy of treatment for syphilis during pregnancy: a cross-sectional study, Ubá, 2018-2023.Epidemiologia e servicos de saude : revista do Sistema Unico de Saude do Brasil · 2026Article
- Policies towards elimination of congenital syphilis in Latin America and the Caribbean: a regional review.Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Acceptability and Implementation Challenges of Benzathine Penicillin G Secondary Prophylaxis for Rheumatic Heart Disease in Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.Global heart · 2025Article
- Syphilis and pregnancy.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2024Article
- A Retrospective Cohort Study onInfection and drug resistance · 2024Article
- The utilization of systematic review evidence in formulating India's National Health Programme guidelines between 2007 and 2021.Health policy and planning · 2023Article
- Temporal trend and factors associated with spatial distribution of congenital syphilis in Brazil: An ecological study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- Penicillin Reactions in Patients With Severe Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Article
- Structural Modeling of the Treponema pallidum Outer Membrane Protein Repertoire: a Road Map for Deconvolution of Syphilis Pathogenesis and Development of a Syphilis Vaccine.Journal of bacteriology · 2021Article
- Weaknesses in primary health care favor the growth of acquired syphilis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Article
- Brazilian Protocol for Sexually Transmitted Infections 2020: acquired syphilis.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the risk of serious adverse reactions to benzathine penicillin in pregnant women for preventing congenital syphilis.
methodsWe searched for clinical trials or cohorts that assessed the incidence of serious adverse reactions to benzathine penicillin in pregnant women and the general population (indirect evidence). MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus and other databases were searched up to December 2012. The GRADE approach was used to assess quality of evidence. Absolute risks of each study were calculated along with their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). We employed the DerSimonian and Laird random effects model in the meta-analyses.
resultsFrom 2,765 retrieved studies we included 13, representing 3,466,780 patients. The studies that included pregnant women were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of benzathine penicillin: no serious adverse reactions were reported among the 1,244 pregnant women included. In the general population, among 2,028,982 patients treated, 4 died from an adverse reaction. The pooled risk of death was virtually zero. Fifty-four cases of anaphylaxis were reported (pooled absolute risk = 0.002%; 95% CI: 0%-0.003% I(2) = 12%). From that estimate, penicillin treatment would be expected to result in an incidence of 0 to 3 cases of anaphylaxis per 100,000 treated. Any adverse reactions were reported in 6,377 patients among 3,465,322 treated with penicillin (pooled absolute risk = 0.169%; 95% CI: 0.073%-0.265% I(2) = 97%). The quality of evidence was very low.
conclusionStudies that assessed the risk of serious adverse events due to benzathine penicillin treatment in pregnant women were scarce, but no reports of adverse reactions were found. The incidence of severe adverse outcomes was very low in the general population. The risk of treating pregnant women with benzathine penicillin to prevent congenital syphilis appears very low and does not outweigh its benefits. Further research is needed to improve the quality of evidence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.