Role of prophylactic antibiotics in the management of acute necrotizing pancreatitis: A meta-analysis.

AIM: To evaluate the role of prophylactic antibiotics in the management of acute necrotizing pancreatitis. METHODS: A computerized literature search of Medline, PubMed, Spring, Ovid, Elsevier, Embase, CNKI, and VIP databases was conducted to identify relevant articles published from January 1994 to October 2011. According to the inclusion criteria, 5 studies were selected. The data were analyzed using RevMan 5.1 software. RESULTS: Our meta-analysis suggests that prophylactic antibiotic treatment did not significantly reduce morbility (RR = 0.75, 95%CI 0.43-1.28, P = 0.29) or the incidence of infected pancreatic necrosis (RR = 0.81, 95%CI 0.55-1.19, P = 0.29), nonpancreatic infection (RR = 0.79, 95%CI 0.59-1.06, P = 0.12), or surgical intervention (RR = 0.78, 95%CI 0.45-1.36, P = 0.37). CONCLUSION: Prophylactic antibiotic treatment does not reduce the occurrence of infected pancreatic necrosis, nonpancreatic infection, surgical intervention or morbility in patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis.