[Levofloxacine for the treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia: results of a meta-analysis].

Levofloxacine is a fluoroquinolone presenting good anti-pneumococcal activity, including against strains with reduced sensitivity to penicillin. Four randomized controlled studies have compared the efficacy of levofloxacine versus other antibiotics (amoxacillin-clavulanic acid, amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, ceftriaxone plus cefuroxime +/- erythromycin) for the treatment of acute community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Grouping the 1,738 analyzable patients in these four studies, a meta-analysis was performed on the sub-group of 275 patients with documented pneumococcal infection (86 with bacteriemia) in order to compare the efficacy of levofloxacine with that of the comparer antibiotics. The trials were homogeneous, allowing the meta-analysis. The overall rate of clinical success was 88.6% in the levofloxacine group and 86.7% in the comparer group. The interval of confidence for the difference in the rate of estimated clinical success was between -5.65% and +9.39%. Bacteriologically, the rate of eradication was 90.2% and 90.4% respectively with an interval of confidence for the difference between -7.83% and +7.36%. The results of this meta-analysis confirmed that the efficacy of levofloxacine for the treatment of acute community-acquired pneumococcal pneumonia is not inferior to that of the comparers; the interval of confidence for the difference in the estimated rate of success did not include the breaking point of non-inferiority (-10% set for the clinical studies) and included zero.