Editorial commentary: Asking the right questions: Morbidity, mortality, and measuring what's important in unbiased evaluations of antimicrobials

摘要

In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Prasad et al present a meta-analysis of 13 randomized trials comparing outcomes of tigecycline with control antimicrobials [1]. Their results show an absolute mortality increase of 0.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], .1-1.2) with tigecycline, translating into 1 excess death for every 143 patients treated (95% CI, 83-1000). The estimates of increased mortality were consistent across diseases, with greater mortality in the more serious and life-threatening diseases.