ReviewViruses2018
Clinical Indications and Compassionate Use of Phage Therapy: Personal Experience and Literature Review with a Focus on Osteoarticular Infections.
Review in Viruses, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Bacteriophages in Hip and Knee Periprosthetic Joint Infections: A Promising Tool in the Era of Antibiotic Resistance.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Pooled it
- Reassessment of Historical Clinical Trials Supports the Effectiveness of Phage Therapy.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2022Pooled it
- [Treatment of bone and periprosthetic infections with bacteriophages : A systematic review].Der Orthopade · 2022Pooled it
- Review
- Bacteriophage therapy for multidrug-resistant bacterial infections: recent advances, clinical evidence, and translational challenges.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Potential of phage therapy for the treatment of diabetic foot infections.Folia microbiologica · 2026Review
- Environmental isolation and characterization of Escherichia coli phages from Burkina Faso.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Antimicrobial peptide resistance in Salmonella AMR: the role of surface binding and lipopolysaccharide remodelling: one health implications.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Phage therapy in revision arthroplasty: State of the art and application protocols.Arthroplasty (London, England) · 2026Review
- Phages as antimicrobials against multi-drug resistant bacteria.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Targeting STEC-induced edema disease in weaned piglets: prophylactic oral phage P-GXEC-L2P5 attenuates bacterial colonization, toxin production, and endothelial damage.Veterinary research · 2025Article
- Characterisation of a NovelPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A Century of Bacteriophages: Insights, Applications, and Current Utilization.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Current Applications and the Future of Phage Therapy for Periprosthetic Joint Infections.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Differences in Phage Recognition and Immunogenicity Contribute to Divergent Human Immune Responses to Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae Phages.European journal of immunology · 2025Article
- Prevention and Modern Strategies for Managing Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcal Infections in Prosthetic Joint Infections (PJIs).Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Formulation of three tailed bacteriophages by spray-drying and atomic layer deposition for thermal stability and controlled release.Journal of pharmaceutical sciences · 2024Article
- Proportion of patients with prosthetic joint infection eligible for adjuvant phage therapy: a French single-centre retrospective study.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Complete Genome Sequences of Four Mycobacteriophages Involved in Directed Evolution against UndisputedMicroorganisms · 2024Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The history of phage therapy started with its first clinical application in 1919 and continues its development to this day. Phages continue to lack any market approval in Western medicine as a recognized drug, but are increasingly used as an experimental therapy for the compassionate treatment of patients experiencing antibiotic failure. The few formal experimental phage clinical trials that have been completed to date have produced inconclusive results on the efficacy of phage therapy, which contradicts the many successful treatment outcomes observed in historical accounts and recent individual case reports. It would therefore be wise to identify why such a discordance exists between trials and compassionate use in order to better develop future phage treatment and clinical applications. The multitude of observations reported over the years in the literature constitutes an invaluable experience, and we add to this by presenting a number of cases of patients treated compassionately with phages throughout the past decade with a focus on osteoarticular infections. Additionally, an abundance of scientific literature into phage-related areas is transforming our knowledge base, creating a greater understanding that should be applied for future clinical applications. Due to the increasing number of treatment failures anticipatedfrom the perspective of a possible post-antibiotic era, we believe that the introduction of bacteriophages into the therapeutic arsenal seems a scientifically sound and eminently practicable consideration today as a substitute or adjuvant to antibiotic therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.