Effect of adjunctive vitamin C, glucocorticoids, and vitamin B1 on longer-term mortality in adults with sepsis or septic shock: a systematic review and a component network meta-analysis
type: Article
item type: journalArticle
is part of: Intensive Care Med
authors: Person
  surname: Fujii
  given name: T.
authors: Person
  surname: Salanti
  given name: G.
authors: Person
  surname: Belletti
  given name: A.
authors: Person
  surname: Bellomo
  given name: R.
authors: Person
  surname: Carr
  given name: A.
authors: Person
  surname: Furukawa
  given name: T. A.
authors: Person
  surname: Luethi
  given name: N.
authors: Person
  surname: Luo
  given name: Y.
authors: Person
  surname: Putzu
  given name: A.
authors: Person
  surname: Sartini
  given name: C.
authors: Person
  surname: Tsujimoto
  given name: Y.
authors: Person
  surname: Udy
  given name: A. A.
authors: Person
  surname: Yanase
  given name: F.
authors: Person
  surname: Young
  given name: P. J.
subject: *Sepsis
subject: *Shock, Septic/drug therapy
subject: Adult
subject: Ascorbic Acid/therapeutic use
subject: Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use
subject: Humans
subject: Hydrocortisone
subject: Network meta-analysis
subject: Sepsis
subject: Systematic review
subject: Thiamine
subject: Thiamine/therapeutic use
subject: Vitamin C
abstract: We aimed to compare the effects of vitamin C, glucocorticoids, vitamin B1, combinations of these drugs, and placebo or usual care on longer-term mortality in adults with sepsis or septic shock. MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, ClinicalTrials.gov and WHO-ICTRP were searched. The final search was carried out on September 3rd, 2021. Multiple reviewers independently selected randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing very-high-dose vitamin C (>/= 12 g/day), high-dose vitamin C (< 12, >/= 6 g/day), vitamin C (< 6 g/day), glucocorticoid (< 400 mg/day of hydrocortisone), vitamin B1, combinations of these drugs, and placebo/usual care. We performed random-effects network meta-analysis and, where applicable, a random-effects component network meta-analysis. We used the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis framework to assess the degree of treatment effect certainty. The primary outcome was longer-term mortality (90-days to 1-year). Secondary outcomes were severity of organ dysfunction over 72 h, time to cessation of vasopressor therapy, and length of stay in intensive care unit (ICU). Forty-three RCTs (10,257 patients) were eligible. There were no significant differences in longer-term mortality between treatments and placebo/usual care or between treatments (10 RCTs, 7,096 patients, moderate to very-low-certainty). We did not find any evidence that vitamin C or B1 affect organ dysfunction or ICU length of stay. Adding glucocorticoid to other treatments shortened duration of vasopressor therapy (incremental mean difference, - 29.8 h [95% CI - 44.1 to - 15.5]) and ICU stay (incremental mean difference, - 1.3 days [95% CI - 2.2 to - 0.3]). Metabolic resuscitation with vitamin C, glucocorticoids, vitamin B1, or combinations of these drugs was not significantly associated with a decrease in longer-term mortality.
date: 2021-11-10
pages: 16-24
coverage: 34750650

Intensive Care Med
type: Journal
volume: 48
number: 1
identifier: DOI 10.1007/s00134-021-06558-0
identifier: ISSN 1432-1238 (Electronic) 0342-4642 (Print) 0342-4642 (Linking)