Ceftaroline and ceftobiprole monotherapy for the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infections: a systematic review...

The comparative efficacy of ceftaroline and ceftobiprole against standard of care for Staphylococcus aureus infections, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus remains uncertain. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of ceftaroline and ceftobiprole monotherapy for non-urinary S. aureus infections.

We registered the protocol in PROSPERO. We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. We included randomized controlled trials and comparative non-randomized studies reporting adjusted estimates, enrolling patients with non-urinary S. aureus infections. The primary analysis assessed clinical cure in randomized trials using a Bayesian random-effects model with a vague prior. For ceftaroline, we additionally conducted an exploratory analysis using an observationally informed prior derived from non-randomized studies with variance inflation. Risk of bias was assessed with RoB 2 and ROBINS-I and certainty of evidence with GRADE.

Sixteen studies met inclusion criteria [11 ceftaroline (1030 subjects); 5 ceftobiprole (1265 subjects)]. In the primary analysis, the pooled odds ratio for clinical cure was 1.38 (95% CrI 0.81-2.44) for ceftaroline and 0.99 (95% CrI 0.59-1.62) for ceftobiprole. The exploratory ceftaroline analysis using an observationally informed prior yielded an odds ratio of 1.45 (95% CrI 0.91-2.38). Adverse events and serious adverse events were similar between groups. Certainty of evidence was low for ceftaroline and moderate for ceftobiprole.

Current evidence does not demonstrate superiority of ceftaroline or ceftobiprole over standard-of-care therapy for clinical cure in non-urinary S. aureus infections. Estimates remain imprecise and are largely driven by registrational trials and subgroup data. These findings support cautious, indication-specific interpretation rather than routine preference of these agents over established therapies.