Safety and tolerability of tigecycline for the treatment of complicated skin and soft-tissue and intra-abdominal infections: an analysis based on five European observational studies

Tigecycline is approved for the treatment of complicated skin and soft-tissue infections (cSSTIs) and complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAIs) in adults. In this analysis the safety and tolerability profile of tigecycline (used alone or in combination) for the treatment of patients with approved indications of cSSTI and cIAI were examined under real-life clinical conditions. Individual patient-level data were pooled from five European observational studies (July 2006 to October 2011). A total of 254 cSSTI and 785 cIAI patients were included. The mean age was 63 years; 34.4 and 56.6 were in intensive care units, 90.9 and 88.1 had at least one comorbidity and mean Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores at the beginning of treatment were 15.07.9 and 16.97.6, respectively. Data on adverse events (AEs) were available for 198 cSSTI and 590 cIAI patients in three studies. Nausea and vomiting were reported in 2 of patients. The most common serious AEs were multi-organ failure (4.0 and 10.0 in cSSTI and cIAI patients, respectively) and sepsis (4.0 and 6.1, respectively). Death was recorded for 24/254 (9.4) cSSTI and 147/785 (18.7) cIAI patients. Mortality rates were higher in the group with a baseline APACHE II score of 15 compared with those with a score of 15 (18.7 versus 3.5 for cSSTI patients and 23.8 versus 16.0 for cIAI patients). A similar trend was seen when cIAI patients were stratified by Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. The safety and tolerability of tigecycline, alone and in combination, are consistent with the level of critical illness among patients in these real-life studies.