Wang J, et al. – This study aimed to compare the relative efficacy and safety of different antibiotic drugs and recommend superior regimens in the treatment of bronchitis. Quinolones were recommended as the primary treatment option for the aforementioned condition.

• The antibiotic comparisons against quinolones in terms of intention–to–treat patients suggested that quinolones had advantages over placebo, β–lactams, sulfonamides, and double β–lactams.
• Concerning treatment methods for clinically evaluable patients, quinolones proved superior in terms of performance than β–lactams and sulfonamides.
• Macrolides, quinolones, and double β–lactams had significantly more adverse secondary effects in comparison to β–lactams with odds ratios (ORs) of 1.5 (95% credible interval [CrI] =1.1–2.0), 1.7 (95% CrI =1.2–2.3), and 2.7 (95% CrI =1.8–4.1), respectively.
• Researchers identified significant differences in the prevalence of diarrhea as a secondary effect only among the comparisons of double β–lactams against β–lactams and macrolides (OR =5.0, 95% CrI =2.1–12.0; OR =3.0, 95% CrI =1.7–5.4, respectively).
• Quinolones seemed the superior treatment option for bronchitis, in accordance with the cluster analysis with surface under the cumulative ranking curve.
• The primary outcomes of network meta–analysis suggested that quinolones had the best performance among the 8 treatments studied, although &brat;–lactams had the lowest risk of adverse side effects.