Table 1

RR of treatment success with various topical antibiotics compared with fluoroquinolone or aminoglycoside–cephalosporin

Drug comparisons	No. of trials (participants) (ref)	Event rate ⁿ/_N	I²	p Value (het)	RR (95% CI)	p Value (effect)
Moxifloxacin compared with
Tobramycin–cefazolin	2 (264)28 31	Moxi ¹⁰⁷/₁₃₀ T/C ¹⁰⁸/₁₃₄	0%	0.70	1.02 (0.91 to 1.14)	0.73
Aminoglycoside–cephalosporin	3 (419)17 28 31	Moxi ¹⁶⁶/₂₀₇ A/C ¹⁶⁷/₂₁₂	0%	0.86	0.93 (0.64 to 1.36)	0.72
Fluoroquinolone	2 (192)17 28	Moxi ⁷⁸/₉₇ Fluoro ⁷⁷/₉₅	0%	0.98	1.02 (0.58 to 1.80)	0.95
Ofloxacin compared with
Aminoglycoside–cephalosporin	4 (440)17 23 24 26	Oflox ¹⁶⁹/₂₂₁ A/C ¹⁶⁴/₂₁₉	0%	0.81	0.94 (0.68 to 1.30)	0.73
Fluoroquinolone	3 (428)17 27 29	Oflox, ¹⁷³/₂₁₆ Fluoro ¹⁶⁰/₂₁₂	0%	0.61	0.82 (0.57 to 1.16)	0.26
Ciprofloxacin compared with
Gentamicin–cefazolin	2 (71)22 30	Cipro ²⁵/₃₂ G/C ²⁷/₃₉	0%	0.87	1.11 (0.84 to 1.45)	0.47
Aminoglycoside–cephalosporin	3 (395)20 22 30	Cipro ¹⁰⁰/₁₉₂ A/C ¹⁰⁸/₂₀₃	0%	0.72	1.02 (0.83 to 1.25)	0.88
Fluoroquinolone	3 (362)20 22 30	Cipro ¹³⁷/₁₇₇ Fluoro ¹⁵⁷/₁₈₅	35%	0.80	1.44 (0.94 to 2.21)	0.10
Gatifloxacin compared with
Fluoroquinolone	2 (145)25 28	Gati ⁵⁹/₇₁ Fluoro ⁵⁷/₇₄	0%	0.86	0.76 (0.40 to 1.44)	0.40
Tobramycin–cefazolin compared with
Fluoroquinolone	6 (1007)17 20 23 24 28 31	T/C ³¹⁸/₄₆₀ Fluoro ³⁹¹/₅₄₇	0%	0.84	0.99 (0.91 to 1.07)	0.74
Fluoroquinolone compared with
Aminoglycoside–cephalosporin	10 (1265)17 20–24 26 28 30 31	Fluoro ⁴⁸²/₆₇₂ A/C ⁴¹⁴/₅₉₃	0%	0.98	1.01 (0.94 to 1.08)	0.86

p<0.05 is considered significant.
A/C, aminoglycoside–cephalosporin; Cipro, ciprofloxacin; Fluoro, fluoroquinolone; G/C, gentamicin–cefazolin; Gati, Gatifloxacin; het, heterogeneity; I², inconsistency index; Moxi, Moxifloxacin; n/N, number of participants with treatment success in each study arm/total number of participants in each study arm; Oflox, ofloxacin; Ref, reference; RR, relative risk; T/C, tobramycin–cefazolin.