Drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment

The analysis for PICO question 5 (MDR/RR-TB, 2018) (different durations of the intensive phase). 
The primary analysis used a subset of records from 3750 patients from 42 observational studies, of whom 
2720 were treated with an individualized MDR-TB regimen and 1030 were treated with standardized 
MDR-TB regimens. Of the 13 104 records in the main IPD, 9354 records were excluded for the following 
reasons – lost to follow-up: n=2261, died: n=2043, did not receive an injectable: n=1094, no information 
on duration of injectable: n=2341, number of medicines likely to be effective less than five or less than 
four plus pyrazinamide: n=1450, and duration of injectable longer than 20 months: n=165.
The evidence to inform PICO question 6 (MDR/RR-TB, 2018) (on regimen duration) was derived 
from a subset of 6356 patients from 51 observational studies for the primary analysis. Of the 6356 
patients, 5352 were treated with an individualized MDR-TB regimen and 1004 were treated with a 
standardized MDR-TB regimen. Of the 13 104 records in the main IPD, 6748 records were excluded 
for the following reasons – lost to follow-up: n=2261, died: n=2043, treatment duration not available: 
n=230, number of effective drugs less than five or less than four plus pyrazinamide: n=2072, treatment 
duration less than 6 months: n=52, and treatment duration more than or equal to 36 months: n=90.
The analysis to address PICO question 7 (MDR/RR-TB, 2018) (on treatment duration after 
culture conversion) was derived from a subset of 4175 patients from 39 observational studies. All 
but three of the 4175 patients were on individualized regimens. The reasons for exclusion of 8929 
records from the main dataset were as follows – lost to follow-up: n=2261, died: n=2043, treatment 
duration not reported: n=230, culture information not reported: n=1945, baseline culture negative: 
n=754, patient never culture converted: n=426, number of effective drugs less than five or less than 
four plus pyrazinamide: n=1215, treatment duration less than 6 months: n=4, treatment duration 
more than or equal to 36 months: n=49, and culture converted post-treatment: n=2.