Procalcitonin-guided antibiotic therapy for pediatrics with infective disease: A updated meta-analyses and trial sequential analysis

We aimed to evaluate the effect of procalcitonin (PCT) guided therapy on antibiotic exposure in pediatric patients with infectious disease. We performed an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) identified in systematic searches of MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Database, Google Scholar, and SinoMed (through July 2021). The primary outcome was the length of the antibiotic therapy. Required information size (RIS) was calculated using trial sequential analysis (TSA). Four RCTs with 1,313 patients with infectious disease were included. Overall, after a mean 22-day follow-up, PCT-guided antibiotic therapy was associated with a significantly shorter length of antibiotic therapy compared with the control group (WMD, -2.22 days; 95% CI, -3.41 to -1.03; P