Figure 2.

Forest plot showing nine studies grouped according to severity of exacerbation. One study with a substantially higher treatment failure rate and a short follow-up of five days was not considered in the analysis. The upper five studies included patients with mild to moderate exacerbations and the four studies below included patients with severe exacerbations. The x-axis represents the odds ratio for treatment failure. An odds ratio below 1 represents a lower chance of treatment failure with antibiotics. Studies not reporting treatment failures could not be included in the meta-analysis.