J Infect Public Health. 2022 Nov 17;15(12):1514-1520. doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2022.11.015. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy of vitamin C-containing therapy for patients with sepsis.
METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from inception to July 27, 2022. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing vitamin C-containing therapy and placebo or alternative treatment for patients with sepsis were included, and the primary outcome was all-cause mortality.
RESULTS: Sixteen RCTs involving a total of 2985 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, no significant difference in 28-day mortality was observed between the study group, who received vitamin C-containing treatment, and the control group (odds ratio [OR], 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.71-1.08; P = .20). In subgroup analysis of eight RCTs focusing on patients with septic shock, there was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the study and control groups (OR, 1.09; 95% CI: 0.89-1.34; P = .41). In addition, no significant difference was observed between the study and control groups in intensive care unit-mortality (OR, 1.03; 95% CI: 0.84-1.25; P = .81), in-hospital mortality (OR, 1.06; 95% CI: 0.85-1.13; P = .60), and 90-day mortality (OR, 1.23; 95% CI: 0.75-2.02; P = .40).
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that adjunctive vitamin C-containing therapy did not help improve the clinical outcomes of patients with sepsis/septic shock. Our findings do not support the additional use of vitamin C for septic patients.
PMID:36434995 | DOI:10.1016/j.jiph.2022.11.015