Introduction: The use of tigecycline (TG) for the treatment of Acinetobacter baumannii is controversial. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to better explore the safety and efficacy of TG for the treatment of multi drug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter. Methods: We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Central, and Web of Science to identify studies reporting the clinical and microbiological efficacy and safety of regimens containing TG in patients with drug susceptibility testing (DST)-confirmed MDR A. baumannii, published until December 30, 2022. Observational studies were included if they reported clinical and microbiological efficacy of TG-based regimens. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and Joana Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tool were used to assess the quality of included studies. Results: There were 30 observational studies, of which 19 studies were cohort and 11 studies were single group studies. Pooled clinical response and failure rates in the TG-containing regimens group were 58.1 (95% confidence interval [CI] 49.2-66.6) and 40.2 (95% CI 31.1-50.0), respectively. The pooled microbiological response rate was 32.1 (95% CI 19.8-47.5), and the pooled all-cause mortality rate was 41.1 (95% CI 34.1-48.4). Pooled clinical response and failure rates in the colistin-based regimens group were 52.7 (42.7-62.5) and 43.1 (33.1-53.8), respectively. The pooled microbiological response rate was 42.9 (16.2-74.5), and the pooled all-cause mortality rate was 34.3 (26.1-43.5). Conclusions: According to our results, the efficacy of the TG-based regimen is the same as other antibiotics. However, our study showed a high mortality rate and a lower rate of microbiological eradication for TG compared with colistin-based regimen. Therefore, our study does not recommend it for the treatment of MDR A. baumannii. However, this was a prevalence meta-analysis of observational studies, and for better conclusion experimental studies are required.
Keywords: efficacy; meta-analysis; multi drug-resistant A. baumannii; safety; systematic review; tigecycline.