Prescription behaviours for tigecycline in real-life clinical practice from five European observational studies

There is limited information on the use of tigecycline in real-life clinical practice. This analysis aims to identify and understand tigecycline prescribing patterns and associated patient outcomes for approved indications. A pooled analysis of patient-level data collected on the prescription of tigecycline in five European observational studies (July 2006 to October 2011) was conducted. A total of 1782 patients who received tigecycline were included in the analysis. Of these patients, 61.6 were male, the mean age was 63.414.7 years, 56.4 were in intensive care units, 80.2 received previous antibiotic treatment and 91 had one or more comorbid conditions. The mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores at the beginning of treatment were 17.77.9 and 7.04.0, respectively. The majority of patients (58.3) received tigecycline for treatment of complicated skin and soft-tissue infections (cSSTIs; n254) or complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs; n785). Tigecycline was given at the standard dose (100 mg plus 50 mg twice daily) to 89.3 of patients for a mean duration of 11.16.4 days. The main reasons for prescribing tigecycline were failure of previous therapy (46.1), broad-spectrum antibiotic coverage (41.4) and suspicion of a resistant pathogen (39.3). Tigecycline was prescribed first-line in 36.3 of patients and as monotherapy in 50.4. Clinical response rates to treatment with tigecycline alone or in combination were 79.6 (183/230; cSSTIs) and 77.4 (567/733; cIAIs). Although tigecycline prescription behaviour showed some heterogeneity across the study sites, these results confirm a role for tigecycline in real-life clinical practice for the treatment of complicated infections, including those in critically ill patients, across Europe.