Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy for pediatrics with infective disease: A updated meta-analyses and trial sequential analysis

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the effect of procalcitonin (PCT) guided therapy on antibiotic exposure in pediatric patients with infectious disease. METHODS: We performed an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) identified in systematic searches of MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Database, Google Scholar, and SinoMed (through July 2021). The primary outcome was the length of the antibiotic therapy. Required information size (RIS) was calculated using trial sequential analysis (TSA). RESULTS: Four RCTs with 1,313 patients with infectious disease were included. Overall, after a mean 22-day follow-up, PCT-guided antibiotic therapy was associated with a significantly shorter length of antibiotic therapy compared with the control group (WMD, −2.22 days; 95% CI, −3.41 to −1.03; P <0.001) and a decreased rate of antibiotic adverse events (RR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.11–0.58; P <0.001). However, the length of hospital stay (WMD, −0.39 days; 95% CI, −0.84 to 0.07; P = 0.094), rates of antibiotic prescription (RR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.97–1.25; P = 0.122), hospital readmission (RR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.92–1.16; P = 0.613) and mortality (RR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.17–3.19; P = 0.674) were comparable between the PCT-guided antibiotic and control groups. TSA showed that the RIS was 2,340, indicating a statistically significantly shorter length of antibiotic therapy between PCT-guided antibiotic and control groups (P <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: PCT-guided management seems to be able to decrease antibiotic exposure in patients with infectious disease. However, much larger prospective clinical studies are warranted to confirm these findings.