Background: Fluoroquinolones are a popular alternative to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia infections. Objectives: To compare the effects of fluoroquinolones and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole on mortality of S. maltophilia infections. Data sources: PubMed and EMBASE. Study eligibility criteria: Clinical studies reporting mortality outcomes of S. maltophilia infections. Participants: Patients with clinical infections caused by S. maltophilia. Interventions: Fluoroquinolone monotherapy in comparison with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole monotherapy.Methods: Systematic review with meta-analysis technique. Results: Seven retrospective cohort and seven caseecontrol studies were included. Three cohort studies were designed to compare the two drugs, whereas others had other purposes. A total of 663 patients were identified, 332 of which were treated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (50.1%) and 331 with fluoroquinolones (49.9%). Three cohort studies were designed to compare the effect of the two drugs, whereas the others had other purposes. Levofloxacin was most frequently used among fluoroquinolones (187/331, 56.5%), followed by ciprofloxacin (114/331, 34.4%). The overall mortality rate was 29.6%. Using pooled ORs for the mortality of each study, fluoroquinolone treatment (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.39e0.99) was associated with survival benefit over trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole treatment, with low heterogeneity (I 2 ¼ 18%). Specific fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.17e1.12) and levofloxacin (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.48e1.26) did not show a significant difference in comparison with trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole. In the sub-group analyses of adult and bacteraemic patients, significant differences in mortality were not observed between fluoroquinolones and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.

We suggested that lipoprotein ratio of LDL-C/HDL-C may be a prognostic factor for hearing recovery in ISSNHL patients. Further studies should be conducted to determine whether hearing outcomes in ISSNHL can be improved by changing patients' lipid profiles via antilipidemic treatment.

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