Infectious complications following transperineal prostate biopsy with or without periprocedural antibiotic prophylaxis-a systematic review including meta-analysis of all comparative studies.

Background: Despite the relatively low infection rate following transperineal prostate biopsy (TPB), it remains unresolved whether periprocedural antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) can be omitted. Our aim was to compare infectious complications (genitourinary infections/GUI, fever, sepsis, readmission rate, 30-day-mortality) following TPB, considering all studies of varying levels of evidence that enable a direct comparison between patients with and without PAP.
Methods: We performed a comprehensive search in PubMed/Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases, as well as grey literature sources, to identify reports published until January 2024. All studies comparing the incidence of infectious endpoints following TPB with vs. without PAP were included in the analyses. The GRADE approach was employed to assess the certainty of evidence for each comparison.
Results: Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria involving 6520 and 5804 patients who underwent TPB with vs. without PAP, respectively. Two of the 23 studies were randomized-controlled trials, not all studies investigated all endpoints. Pooled incidences between patients with vs. without PAP for the endpoints GUI (0.50% vs. 0.37%), fever (0.44% vs. 0.26%), sepsis (0.16% vs. 0.13%), and readmission rate (0.35% vs. 0.29%) showed no significant differences (all p > 0.250). The corresponding odds ratios (including 95% confidence interval) also revealed no statistically significant differences: 1.37 (0.74-2.54) [GUI], 0.87 (0.28-2.66) [fever], 1.30 (0.46-3.67) [sepsis], and 1.45 (0.70-3.03) [readmission rate]. No study reported events regarding 30-day-mortality. In subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses, TPB without PAP showed no significantly higher complication rates regarding all analyzed endpoints.
Conclusions: Infectious complications after TPB occur very rarely and cannot be further reduced by PAP. Considering the results of this systematic review and adhering to the principles of effective antibiotic stewardship, omitting PAP in the context of TPB is advisable.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: Ingmar Wolff certifies that all conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (eg, employment/affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, or patents filed, received, or pending), are the following: Florian Wagenlehner und Adrian Pilatz contributed to the current Guidelines of the European Association of Urology on Urological Infections. Katharina Hauner, Marianne Abele-Horn, and Matthias May contributed to the current German S3-Guidelines on Perioperative/Periprocedural Antibiotic Prophylaxis.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)