Trial reportThe New England journal of medicine2018
Balanced Crystalloids versus Saline in Critically Ill Adults.
Trial report in The New England journal of medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 8 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 556 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Isotonic Solutions and Major Adverse Renal Events Trial in the Medical Intensive Care Unit
Isotonic Solutions and Major Adverse Renal Events Trial in Non-Medical Intensive Care Units
Balanced Solutions and Plasma Electrolytes in the Medical Intensive Care Unit
Pragmatic Investigation of Volume Targeted Ventilation-1 (PIVOT-1)
Acetated Ringer's Solution Versus Saline in Patients With Septic Shock
Balanced Crystalloids (RInger's Lactate) Versus Normal Saline in Adults With Diabetic Ketoacidosis in the Emergency Department: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (BRISK-ED)
Hospital Airway Resuscitation Trial: A Cluster-Randomized, Pragmatic Trial
Incidence of Acute Kidney Injury and Mortality in Critically Ill Patients: Urinary Chloride as a Prognostic Marker
Who cites it
556 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,377 citations in OpenAlex.
- Balanced crystalloid versus saline for resuscitation in adult sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Balanced crystalloids vs. 0.9% saline in pediatric diabetic ketoacidosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Sex and gender considerations in randomized controlled trials in critical care nephrology: a meta-epidemiologic study.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Lactated Ringer's solution versus saline fluid resuscitation for reducing progression to moderate-to-severe acute pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of surgery (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Balanced crystalloid versus saline for resuscitation in pediatric septic shock: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- Plasma-lyte solution versus saline in kidney transplantation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Fluid resuscitation in adults with severe infection and sepsis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Early management of adult sepsis and septic shock: Korean clinical practice guidelines.Acute and critical care · 2024Guideline
- Clinical efficacy of various resuscitation fluids in the management of sepsis in postoperative surgical and trauma patients: a systematic review and meta--analysis.Wideochirurgia i inne techniki maloinwazyjne = Videosurgery and other miniinvasive techniques · 2024Pooled it
- APASL clinical practice guidelines on the management of acute kidney injury in acute-on-chronic liver failure.Hepatology international · 2024Guideline
- American College of Gastroenterology Guidelines: Management of Acute Pancreatitis.The American journal of gastroenterology · 2024Guideline
- Comparison of Fluid Resuscitation with Lactate Ringer's Versus Normal Saline in Acute Pancreatitis: An Updated Meta-Analysis.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Comparison of balanced crystalloids versus normal saline in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- A Systematic Bibliometric Analysis of High-Impact Articles in Critical Care Nephrology.Blood purification · 2024Pooled it
- Balanced Fluid or 0.9% Saline in Children Treated for Septic Shock.The New England journal of medicine · 2026Trial
- Effect of Ringer's Lactate versus normal saline irrigation on postoperative morbidity after surgical removal of mandibular impacted third molars: a randomized split-mouth clinical trial.BMC oral health · 2026Trial
- Effect of opt-in versus opt-out framing on trial recruitment: a study within a trial of the GAMEPAD randomized trial.American heart journal · 2026Trial
- Evaluation of the effects of Plasma-Lyte 148 or 0.9% saline on acid-base balance in patients undergoing neurosurgery: a randomized clinical trial.Einstein (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2026Trial
- Normal Saline Versus Ringer's Lactate for Intravenous Fluid Therapy in Children with Diabetic Ketoacidosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Indian journal of pediatrics · 2025Trial
- Effect of Ventilator Mode on Ventilator-Free Days in Critically Ill Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Chest · 2025Trial
496 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBoth balanced crystalloids and saline are used for intravenous fluid administration in critically ill adults, but it is not known which results in better clinical outcomes.
methodsIn a pragmatic, cluster-randomized, multiple-crossover trial conducted in five intensive care units at an academic center, we assigned 15,802 adults to receive saline (0.9% sodium chloride) or balanced crystalloids (lactated Ringer's solution or Plasma-Lyte A) according to the randomization of the unit to which they were admitted. The primary outcome was a major adverse kidney event within 30 days - a composite of death from any cause, new renal-replacement therapy, or persistent renal dysfunction (defined as an elevation of the creatinine level to ≥200% of baseline) - all censored at hospital discharge or 30 days, whichever occurred first.
resultsAmong the 7942 patients in the balanced-crystalloids group, 1139 (14.3%) had a major adverse kidney event, as compared with 1211 of 7860 patients (15.4%) in the saline group (marginal odds ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84 to 0.99; conditional odds ratio, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82 to 0.99; P=0.04). In-hospital mortality at 30 days was 10.3% in the balanced-crystalloids group and 11.1% in the saline group (P=0.06). The incidence of new renal-replacement therapy was 2.5% and 2.9%, respectively (P=0.08), and the incidence of persistent renal dysfunction was 6.4% and 6.6%, respectively (P=0.60).
conclusionsAmong critically ill adults, the use of balanced crystalloids for intravenous fluid administration resulted in a lower rate of the composite outcome of death from any cause, new renal-replacement therapy, or persistent renal dysfunction than the use of saline. (Funded by the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and others; SMART-MED and SMART-SURG ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT02444988 and NCT02547779 .).
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.