Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Transarterial Chemoembolization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose: Owing to persistent controversy regarding the use of routine antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TCAE) and the availability of several new studies published on the subject, we conducted an up-to-date meta-analysis to provide the best current evidence. The aim of the article is to assess whether antibiotic prophylaxis is effective in reducing the incidence of infectious complications after TCAE. Materials and methods: PubMed, Google scholar, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CNKI and Wan-Fang database were searched through October 2018 for randomized or non-randomized controlled trials for comparing the use of prophylactic antibiotics in TACE with placebo or no antibiotics were included in the review. Pooled effect estimates were calculated using fixed-effects and random-effects models. Results: Eight studies with a total number of 1672 of procedures were included in the meta-analysis. We found no evidence of publication bias or heterogeneity among the studies. Antibiotic prophylaxis did not reduce the incidence of infectious complications (risk ratio [RR] 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62 to 1.24, p=0.464) and the rate of patients developing fever (RR 1.04, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.19, p=0.595). When the analyses were stratified into subgroups, there was no evidence that study design substantially influenced the estimate of effects. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis confirmed the stability of our results. Conclusion: Although current evidence demonstrates that the routine use of antibiotic prophylaxis for TACE may not be necessary, more evidence from advanced multi-center studies is needed to provide instruction for the use of prophylactic antibiotics.