Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Appropriate Empiric Anti-Enterococcal Therapy for Intra-Abdominal Infection

Background: Delayed treatment of seriously infected patients results in increased mortality. However, antimicrobial therapy for the initial 24 to 48 hours is mostly empirically provided, without evidence regarding the causative pathogen. Whether empiric anti-enterococcal therapy should be administered to treat intra-abdominal infection (IAI) before obtaining culture results remains unknown. We performed a meta-analysis to explore the effects of empiric enterococci covered antibiotic therapy in IAI and the risk factors for enterococcal infection in IAI. Methods: We searched multiple databases systematically and included 23 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 13 observational studies. The quality of included studies was assessed, and the reporting bias was evaluated. Meta-analysis was performed using random effects or fixed effects models according to the heterogeneity. The risk ratio (RR), odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Results: Enterococci-covered antibiotic regimens provided no improvement in treatment success compared with control regimens (RR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.97–1.00; p = 0.15), with similar mortality and adverse effects in both arms. Basic characteristic analysis revealed that most of the enrolled patients with IAI in RCTs were young, lower risk community-acquired intra-abdominal infection (CA-IAI) patients with a relatively low APACHE II score. Interestingly, risk factor screening revealed that malignancy, corticosteroid use, operation, any antibiotic treatment, admission to intensive care unit (ICU), and indwelling urinary catheter could predispose the patients with IAI to a substantially higher risk of enterococcal infection. “Hospital acquired” itself was a risk factor (OR, 2.81; 95% CI, 2.34–3.39; p < 0.001). Conclusion: It is unnecessary to use additional agents empirically to specifically provide anti-enterococcal coverage for the management of CA-IAI in lower risk patients without evidence of causative pathogen, and risk factors can increase the risk of enterococcal infection. Thus, there is a rationale for providing empiric anti-enterococcal coverage for severely ill patients with CA-IAI with high risk factors and patients with hospital-acquired intra-abdominal infection (HA-IAI).