AbstractBackgroundSelective digestive decontamination (SDD) and selective oropharyngeal decontamination (SOD) regimens appear protective against ICU-acquired overall bacteraemia. These regimens can be factorized as topical antibiotic prophylaxis (TAP) with (SDD) or without (SOD) protocolized parenteral antibiotic prophylaxis (PPAP) using cephalosporins. Both TAP and cephalosporins are risk factors for enterococcal colonization although their impact on enterococcal bacteraemia within studies of SDD/SOD remains unclear.ObjectivesTo benchmark the enterococcal bacteraemia incidence within component (control and intervention) groups of SDD/SOD studies among ICU patients versus studies without intervention (observational groups).MethodsThe literature was searched for SDD/SOD studies reporting enterococcal bacteraemia incidence data. In addition, component groups of studies of various non-antibiotic interventions served to provide additional points of reference.ResultsThe mean incidence per 100 patients (and 95% CI) for enterococcal bacteraemia among 19 SDD/SOD studies was equally increased among concurrent control (2.1; 1.0%–4.7%) and intervention (2.3; 2.0%–2.7%) groups versus the benchmark incidence (0.8; 0.6%–1.2%) derived from 16 observational study groups and also versus 9 component groups from non-antibiotic studies. These higher incidences remained apparent (P < 0.02) in a meta-regression model adjusting for groupwide factors such as PPAP use, mechanical ventilation proportion, group mean length of stay >7 days and publication year.ConclusionsThe incidences of enterococcal bacteraemia within both concurrent control and intervention groups of SDD/SOD studies are unusually high compared with the literature-derived benchmark. The impact of parenteral cephalosporin used as PPAP additional to TAP on enterococcal bacteraemia incidence was indeterminate in this analysis.