Oral Tetracyclines and Acne: A Systematic Review for Dermatologists

Oral tetracyclines are the most widely prescribed systemic antibiotic for acne. Synthesis of efficacy and safety of traditional and novel oral tetracyclines is highly informative to clinical practice. We conducted a systematic search of PubMed to identify large interventional and observational studies utilizing oral tetracyclines as an acne treatment. We identified 13 articles meeting inclusion for this review, which represented 226,019 pediatric and adult acne patients. Oral tetracyclines that were included in this systematic review were sarecycline (a novel narrow-spectrum tetracycline), doxycycline, minocycline, and tetracycline. Based on shared and divergent outcome measures, different oral tetracyclines were variably effective against facial acne. Sarecycline also demonstrated efficacy in truncal acne. Members of the oral tetracycline class also differed in their ability to minimize antibiotic resistance and gut dysbiosis.