Efficacy of bedaquiline in the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a major public health concern worldwide. Bedaquiline, a novel diarylquinoline, was added to the WHO-recommended all-oral regimen for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the effect of bedaquiline on tuberculosis treatment outcomes. METHODS: We searched the PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE databases for relevant studies published up to March 12, 2021. We included studies in which some participants received bedaquiline and others did not. Stata version 16.0 (Stata Corp., College Station, Texas, USA) was used to analyze the results of the meta-analysis. Risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated to evaluate the effect of bedaquiline on drug-resistant tuberculosis. Between-study heterogeneity was examined by the I-squared test. Randomized controlled trials were assessed for quality using the Jadad scale, and cohort studies were assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale. RESULTS: Eight studies, including 2 randomized controlled trials and 6 cohort studies involving a total of 21,836 subjects, were included. When compared with the control, bedaquiline treatment was associated with higher rates of culture conversion (risk ratio (RR):1.272 (1.165–1.389), P < 0.001). We found substantial evidence of a significant reduction in all-cause death (RR: 0.529 (0.454–0.616), P < 0.001)) in the bedaquiline treatment group. There was no significant reduction in treatment success (RR = 0.980 (0.948–1.013, P = 0.234)). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that compared with patients who do not receive bedaquiline, this drug has the potential to achieve a higher culture conversion rate and a lower mortality risk among drug-resistant tuberculosis cases. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-021-06666-8.