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Review
. 2022 Dec 4;11(23):7207.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11237207.

Antibiotics Use in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Literature Review

Guido Granata  1 , Francesco Schiavone  2 , Giuseppe Pipitone  3 , Fabrizio Taglietti  1 , Nicola Petrosillo  4
Affiliations
Review

Antibiotics Use in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Literature Review

Guido Granata et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

The issue of bacterial infections in COVID-19 patients has received increasing attention among scientists. Antibiotics were widely prescribed during the early phase of the pandemic. We performed a literature review to assess the reasons, evidence and practices on the use of antibiotics in COVID-19 in- and outpatients. Published articles providing data on antibiotics use in COVID-19 patients were identified through computerized literature searches on the MEDLINE and SCOPUS databases. Searching the MEDLINE database, the following search terms were adopted: ((antibiotic) AND (COVID-19)). Searching the SCOPUS database, the following search terms were used: ((antibiotic treatment) AND (COVID-19)). The risk of bias in the included studies was not assessed. Both quantitative and qualitative information were summarized by means of textual descriptions. Five-hundred-ninety-three studies were identified, published from January 2020 to 30 October 2022. Thirty-six studies were included in this systematic review. Of the 36 included studies, 32 studies were on the use of antibiotics in COVID-19 inpatients and 4 on antibiotic use in COVID-19 outpatients. Apart from the studies identified and included in the review, the main recommendations on antibiotic treatment from 5 guidelines for the clinical management of COVID-19 were also summarized in a separate paragraph. Antibiotics should not be prescribed during COVID-19 unless there is a strong clinical suspicion of bacterial coinfection or superinfection.

Keywords: COVID-19 inpatients; COVID-19 outpatients; COVID-19 pandemic; antibiotics; antibiotics use in COVID-19 patients; antimicrobials; bacterial coinfection; bacterial infections; guidelines for the clinical management of COVID-19; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart depicting the selection process of studies included in the systematic review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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