Table 3.

Positive C. acnes cultures in different studies.

Primary study	No. of	Male	Female	Positive C. acnes cultures	Swab
	patients	(%)	(%)	before treatment	technique
Chuang et al. (2015)	51	74	26	72 %	ND
Phadnis et al. (2016)	50	60	40	42 %	ND
Murray et al. (2011)	50	50	50	58 %	ND
Dizay et al. (2017)	65	66	34	48 %	ND
Matsen et al. (2013)	30	60	40	77 %	ND
Sabetta et al. (2015)	50	46	54	32 %	ND
Scheer et al. (2018)	40	60	40	95 %	PES
Scheer et al. (2021)	100	63	37	97 %	PES

ND: not described, PES: pencil eraser swab technique