Is the risk of early neurologic lyme borreliosis reduced by preferentially treating patients with erythema migrans with doxycycline?

Doxycycline is highly effective treatment for early neurologic Lyme borreliosis (NLB). 19 studies were reviewed to determine if treatment of patients with erythema migrans with other oral antibiotics would increase the risk for developing NLB. In the 8 studies that directly compared doxycycline to another antibiotic, the pooled difference indicated a 0.2% greater risk of developing NLB in doxycycline treated patients (95% CI: -1.0%, +1.4%; p=0.77), with an estimated heterogeneity of 0.0%, p=0.58.
Source: Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease - Category: Microbiology Authors: Source Type: research