Table 12.

GRADE Evidence Profile comparing antibiotics vs. placebo in hospitalized patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis, without gastrointestinal infection.

Adjuvant Antibiotic Therapy Compared to Placebo for Hospitalized Patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis, without gastrointestinal infection
Outcomes	Study event rates (95% CI)		Relative effect (95% CI)	Absolute effect*	No of participants (studies)	Quality of the evidence (GRADE)
	Risk with Placebo	Risk with Antibiotics
Short-term colectomy	26/81 (32.1%)	20/85 (23.5%)	RR 0.79 (0.46 to 1.35)	67 fewer per 1,000 (from 173 fewer to 112 more)	166 (4 RCTs)	⨁◯◯◯1,2,3 VERY LOW
GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High quality: We are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect Moderate quality: We are moderately confident in the effect estimate: The true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different Low quality: Our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: The true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect Very low quality: We have very little confidence in the effect estimate: The true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect

¹Rated down for risk of bias (random sequence generation, allocation concealment, unclear risk of bias in blinding of outcome assessors/analysts)

²Rated down for very serious imprecision

³Rated down for inconsistency (in intervention – different antibiotics used)