AIM: To compare the clinical efficacy and safety of gatifloxacin eye drops and levofloxacin eye drops in the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis using Meta-analysis.

METHODS: According to the Cochrane systematic evaluation method, “gatifloxacin” “levofloxacin” and “acute bacterial conjunctivitis” were used as keywords for literature search in Embase, Cochrane library, Pubmed, Medline, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and CBMdisc from the establishment of the database to March 1, 2021. Randomized controlled trials(RCTs)gatifloxacin eye drops and levofloxacin eye drops in the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis were included. Cochrane bias risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. RevMan5.3 software was used for combined analysis. Egger's test in Stata12 was used to assess publication bias, and the level of evidence was evaluated according to the GRADE system.

RESULTS: A total of 10 RCTs were included in this study with 1 149 patients. The control group was treated with levofloxacin and the experimental group was treated with gatifloxacin. The results of Meta-analysis showed that the clinical effective rate of acute bacterial conjunctivitis in gatifloxacin group was higher than that in levofloxacin group(OR=3.75, 95%CI: 2.52-5.58, P<0.00001). Egger's test suggested there was publication bias among studies. And GRADE rating results indicated, the level of evidence was VERY LOW. The incidence of adverse drug reactions in the gatifloxacin group was lower than that in levofloxacin group(OR=0.37, 95%CI: 0.19-0.71, P=0.003). No publication bias was observed in Egger's test and GRADE showed the level of evidence was LOW.

CONCLUSION: Gatifloxacin eye drops is more effective than levofloxacin eye drops in the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis, and has lower adverse effect rates. And due to the low levels of evidence included, more multicenter, randomized double-blind clinical trials are needed to improve the strength of evidence for the clinical efficacy of gatifloxacin eye drops in the treatment of acute bacterial conjunctivitis.