• Nan Ding, Yong-Hui Sun, Li-Mei Wen, Jian-Hua Wang, Jian-Hua Yang, Kun Cheng, Hai Lin, and Qi-Long Chen.
• Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830054, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2020 Jan 20; 133 (2): 212220212-220.

BackgroundRecent evidence has shown that prophylactic antibiotic treatment in patients with acute pancreatitis is not associated with a significant decrease in mortality or morbidity. The use and efficacy of prophylactic antibiotic treatment in acute pancreatitis remain controversial. This meta-analysis was conducted to assess whether antibiotic prophylaxis is beneficial in patients with acute pancreatitis.MethodsWe searched randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of prophylactic use of antibiotics using Medline (PubMed), Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science. The data were analyzed using Review Manager 5.3 software. We performed pooled analyses for infected pancreatic necrosis, mortality, surgical intervention, and non-pancreatic infection. Odds ratios (ORs) from each trial were pooled using a random or fixed effects model, depending on the heterogeneity of the included studies. Sub-group analysis or sensitivity analysis was conducted to explore potential sources of heterogeneity, when necessary.ResultsTotally, 11 RCTs involving 747 participants were included, with an intervention group (prophylactic use of antibiotics, n = 376) and control group (n = 371). No significant differences were found regarding antibiotic prophylaxis with respect to incidence of infected pancreatic necrosis (OR, 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50-1.09; P = 0.13), surgical intervention (OR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.62-1.38; P = 0.70), and morality (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.44-1.15; P = 0.16). However, antibiotic prophylaxis was associated with a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of non-pancreatic infection (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.42-0.84; P = 0.004).ConclusionsProphylactic antibiotics can reduce the incidence of non-pancreatic infection in patients with AP.

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