ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Patients with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) often have coexisting medical problems requiring immunosuppressive therapy. However, limited data are available on the association between immunosuppressive therapy and CDI outcomes. AIM: To determine the association between immunosuppressive therapy and CDI outcomes. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched through February 2021. Two reviewers independently reviewed and included studies that compared adult CDI patients who received immunosuppressive therapy to those who did not. The primary outcome was complicated CDl, including death, surgery, shock, or ICU admission. Raw data or unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) were used to calculate pooled ORs with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: Twenty-two studies with a total of 5759 CDI patients were selected. Immunosuppressive therapy was significantly associated with both primary outcome and death, with pooled ORs of 1.61 (95% CI 1.33-1.96) and 1.73 (95% CI 1.39-2.15) separately. The association between corticosteroids and primary outcome was also significant with OR of 1.73 (95% CI 1.41, 2.12). In subgroup analysis, the factors explaining differences in study results included study quality, patient age, and whether individual studies had adjusted for potential confounders. In a systematic review, most studies suggested a positive association between immunosuppressive therapy and complicated outcomes of CDI in patients comorbid for IBD. CONCLUSIONS: Our systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrate that immunosuppressive therapy is a risk factor for complicated outcomes of CDI.
