Use of antibiotic prophylaxis is not needed for endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of pancreatic cysts: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

There is limited evidence on the use of antibiotic prophylaxis prior to endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of pancreatic cysts. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis in this setting.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Bibliographic search was performed through January 2020. The primary outcome was infection rate. Additional endpoints were severe infection rate and overall rates of adverse events.

RESULTS

Six studies, of which one was a randomized controlled trial and five were retrospective, with 1706 patients were included. Most patients were female, and body/tail was the most frequent location of cystic lesions. Overall, eight infectious events were observed in the antibiotic group (0.77%), whereas 12 events were registered in the control group (1.7%), with no difference in terms of infection rate (odds ratio 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.24-1.78; p = 0.40). Again, no difference was observed between the two study groups in terms of either severe infection (odds ratio 0.88, 0.13-5.82; p = 0.89) and overall adverse event rate (odds ratio 1.09, 0.73-1.65; p = 0.67).

CONCLUSIONS

Prophylactic antibiotics do not seem to substantially reduce the risk of infections after endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration of pancreatic cystic lesions, and routine use of prophylactic antibiotics should be questioned.