Trial reportAnnals of surgery2005
Survival benefit in critically ill burned patients receiving selective decontamination of the digestive tract: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.
Trial report in Annals of surgery, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
42 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effect of selective decontamination on antimicrobial resistance in intensive care patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Topical antibiotic prophylaxis to reduce respiratory tract infections and mortality in adults receiving mechanical ventilation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Topical antibiotics as a major contextual hazard toward bacteremia within selective digestive decontamination studies: a meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2014Pooled it
- Antibiotic prophylaxis for preventing burn wound infection.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, mortality and all intensive care unit acquired infections by topically applied antimicrobial or antiseptic agents: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in intensive care units.Critical care (London, England) · 2011Pooled it
- Guideline
- Guideline
- Prophylactic antibiotics for burns patients: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2010Pooled it
- Antibiotic prophylaxis to reduce respiratory tract infections and mortality in adults receiving intensive care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2009Pooled it
- Single-drug therapy or selective decontamination of the digestive tract as antifungal prophylaxis in critically ill patients: a systematic review.Critical care (London, England) · 2007Pooled it
- Impact of selective decontamination of the digestive tract on fungal carriage and infection: systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Intensive care medicine · 2005Pooled it
- The impact of oral health and 0.2% chlorhexidine oral gel on the prevalence of nosocomial infections in surgical intensive-care patients: a randomized placebo-controlled study.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2010Trial
- Unprecedented Polymicrobial Bacteremia With Nine Microorganisms in a Critically Ill 95% Burn Patient.Cureus · 2025Article
- Testing the Stable Unit Treatment Variance Assumption (SUTVA) Within Cochrane Reviews of Antimicrobial-Based Pneumonia Prevention Interventions Among Mechanically Ventilated Patients Using Caterpillar Plots.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Rebound Inverts theAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Quality indicators in intensive care medicine for Germany - fourth edition 2022.German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2023Review
- Predictors of short-term outcomes of burn in a newly established burn centre in Iran.Nursing open · 2021Article
- Selective Intestinal Decontamination as a Method for Preventing Infectious Complications (Review).Sovremennye tekhnologii v meditsine · 2021Review
- Quality indicators in intensive care medicine for Germany - third edition 2017.German medical science : GMS e-journal · 2017Review
- What is new in selective decontamination of the digestive tract?Intensive care medicine · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate whether selective digestive decontamination (SDD) reduces mortality from any cause, and the incidence of pneumonia among patients with severe burns. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: SDD is a prophylactic strategy to reduce infectious morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Two meta-analyses and a recent randomized controlled trial demonstrated a mortality reduction varying between 20% and 40%. But this technique has never been properly evaluated in severely burned patients.
methodsThe design of this single-center trial was randomized, double blind, placebo controlled. Patients with burns > or =20% of total body surface and/or suspected inhalation injury were enrolled and assigned to receive SDD or placebo for the total duration of treatment in the burn intensive care unit (ICU).
resultsOne hundred seventeen patients were randomized and 107 were analyzed (53 in the SDD group and 54 in the placebo group). The ICU mortality was 27.8% in the placebo group and 9.4% in the SDD group in the burn ICU. Treatment with SDD was associated with a significant reduction in mortality both in the burn ICU (risk ratio 0.25; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.76) and in the hospital (risk ratio 0.28; 95% CI 0.10 to 0.80), following adjustment for predicted mortality. The incidence of pneumonia was significantly higher in the placebo group: 30.8 and 17.0 pneumonias per 1000 ventilation days (P = 0.03) in placebo and SDD group, respectively.
conclusionsTreatment with SDD reduces mortality and pneumonia incidence in patients with severe burns.
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