TY - JOUR T1 - Response to: ‘Less antibiotics but no inferior effect for bacterial arthritis’ by Zhang <em>et al</em> JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases JO - Ann Rheum Dis SP - e145 LP - e145 DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2019-215909 VL - 79 IS - 11 AU - Ilker Uçkay AU - Ergys Gjika Y1 - 2020/11/01 UR - http://ard.bmj.com/content/79/11/e145.abstract N2 - We read with great interest the scientific remarks of our colleagues Zhang et al 1 to our article,2 randomising to either two or 4 weeks of systemic targeted antibiotic therapy after surgical drainage of native joint bacterial arthritis in adults. This was a classical non-inferiority trial advocating a similar outcome, similar mechanical sequels and a similar proportion of antibiotic-related adverse events in the short-antibiotic treatment group when compared with the classical long antibiotic administration of 4 weeks. However, trial was sufficiently powered for the subgroup of hand and wrist arthritis cases. It was not for other possible separate subsets of … ER -