• Top
• Correction
• References

Correction

Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: When are antibiotics indicated? A systematic review

Milo A Puhan , Daniela Vollenweider , Tsogyal Latshang , Johann Steurer and Claudia Steurer-Stey

Horten Centre, University Hospital of Zurich, Postfach Nord, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland

author email corresponding author email

Respiratory Research 2008, 9:81doi:10.1186/1465-9921-9-81

See related research article by Puhan et al., http://respiratory-research.com/content/8/1/30

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://respiratory-research.com/content/9/1/81

Received:	2 July 2008
Accepted:	15 December 2008
Published:	15 December 2008

© 2008 Puhan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Correction

Since publication of our article [1], we have been made aware of an error in our article.

We have transposed the proportion of patients with treatment failure in the antibiotic and placebo groups of one trial [2]. 19 out of 57 patients experienced a treatment failure compared to 28 out of 59 patients in the placebo group (odds ratio 0.55 (0.26–1.17).

In the results section of the abstract the sentences "For the effects of antibiotics on treatment failure there was much heterogeneity across all trials (I² = 82%). Meta-regression revealed severity of exacerbation as significant explanation for this heterogeneity (p = 0.016): Antibiotics did not reduce treatment failures in outpatients with mild to moderate exacerbations (pooled odds ratio 1.09, 95% CI 0.75–1.59, I² = 18%)" the text should read: "For the effects of antibiotics on treatment failure there was much heterogeneity across all trials (I² = 75%). Meta-regression revealed severity of exacerbation as significant explanation for this heterogeneity (p = 0.038): Antibiotics did not reduce treatment failures in outpatients with mild to moderate exacerbations (pooled odds ratio 0.81, 95% CI 0.55–1.18, I² = 13%)."

In the results section, following the subheading "Effects of antibiotics" the second paragraph "Figure 2 shows that the effects of antibiotics were very heterogeneous across trials (I² = 82%). When we explored predefined sources of heterogeneity in meta-regression analyses we found that generation of antibiotic (p = 0.55), definition of outcomes (p = 0.20), length of follow-up (p = 0.38) and study quality (p = 0.92) did not explain heterogeneity." should read "Figure 2 shows that the effects of antibiotics were very heterogeneous across trials (I² = 75%). When we explored predefined sources of heterogeneity in meta-regression analyses we found that generation of antibiotic (p = 0.59), definition of outcomes (p = 0.06), length of follow-up (p = 0.85) and study quality (p = 0.42) did not explain heterogeneity."

In the results section, following the subheading "Effects of antibiotics" the fourth paragraph "When we did the meta-analysis without this trial, we found that severity of exacerbations was associated significantly with treatment effects (p = 0.016). Figure three shows the pooled results separately for trials including patients with mild to moderate exacerbations and patients with severe exacerbations. For mild to moderate exacerbations, antibiotics did not significantly reduce the risk for treatment failure (OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.75–1.59, I² = 18%). When the Allegra trial [25] was included in the meta-analysis the pooled estimate favoured antibiotics (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.41–0.74, with a number-needed to treat of 9, 95% CI 6–16) but there was a large amount of heterogeneity (I² = 87%)." should read "When we did the meta-analysis without this trial, we found that severity of exacerbations was associated significantly with treatment effects (p = 0.038). Figure three shows the pooled results separately for trials including patients with mild to moderate exacerbations and patients with severe exacerbations. For mild to moderate exacerbations, antibiotics did not significantly reduce the risk for treatment failure (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.55–1.18, I² = 1 three%). When the Allegra trial [25] was included in the meta-analysis the pooled estimate favoured antibiotics (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.34–0.61, with a number-needed to treat of 9, 95% CI 7–12) but there was a large amount of heterogeneity (I² = 83%)."

The corrected versions of Figures two and three are given here- see figures 1 and 2.

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion that this may have caused.

References

1. Puhan MA, Vollenweider D, Latshang T, Steurer J, Steurer-Stey C: Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: when are antibiotics indicated? A systematic review.

   Respiratory research 2007, 8:30. PubMed Abstract | BioMed Central Full Text | PubMed Central Full Text

2. Anthonisen NR, Manfreda J, Warren CP, Hershfield ES, Harding GK, Nelson NA: Antibiotic therapy in exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

   Annals of Internal Medicine 1987, 106(2):196-204. PubMed Abstract

Have something to say? Post a comment on this article!