SynthesisFrontiers in immunology2021
Corticosteroids for Treating Sepsis in Adult Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in immunology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers, 3 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Low-dose corticosteroids in severe pulmonary infection: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.BMJ open respiratory research · 2026Pooled it
- Corticosteroids for sepsis and septic shock: a meta-analysis of 18 RCTs with dose-stratified and fludrocortisone subgroup evaluation.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Pooled it
- Research without prior consent procedure and intervention effect on mortality in critical care: a meta-epidemiological study of randomized controlled trials.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of prehospital high-dose glucocorticoid on hemodynamics in patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a sub-study of the STEROHCA trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2024Trial
- Steroid administration, timing, and dose in patients with septic shock in the emergency department: retrospective analysis of a multicenter prospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2026Observational
- A sinomenine derivative protects life-threatening inflammatory injuries via covalently binding to a novel allosteric inhibition site of IRF3.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2026Article
- Hyper-inflammation and immunosuppression: redefining sepsis therapy using modern approaches.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Endocrine and metabolic alterations in response to systemic inflammation and sepsis: a review article.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Review
- Recent trends in septic shock management: a narrative review of current evidence and recommendations.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2024Review
- Review
- Does steroid increase LPS-induced sickness behaviors?Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and the attenuation of risk for disseminated intravascular coagulation in patients with sepsis.Journal of thrombosis and thrombolysis · 2024Article
- Factor Impacting Quality of Life Among Sepsis Survivors During and After Hospitalization: A Systematic Review of Current Empirical Evidence.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Review
- Into the storm: the imbalance in the yin-yang immune response as the commonality of cytokine storm syndromes.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- HAT therapy for sepsis: A review of the therapeutic rationale and current clinical evaluation status.Journal of intensive medicine · 2023Review
- Decoding Sepsis-Induced Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation: A Comprehensive Review of Existing and Emerging Therapies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Systemic Corticosteroids for Treating Respiratory Diseases: Less Is Better, but… When and How Is It Possible in Real Life?Pulmonary therapy · 2023Review
- Treating COVID-19: Targeting the Host Response, Not the Virus.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Cell-Specific Regulation of Inflammatory Cytokines and Acute-Phase Proteins by the Glucocorticoid Receptor.Mediators of inflammation · 2023Article
- Characteristics and outcomes of patients with sepsis who had cortisol level measurements or received hydrocortisone during their intensive care unit management: A retrospective single center study.SAGE open medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Corticosteroids are a common option used in sepsis treatment. However, the efficacy and potential risk of corticosteroids in septic patients have not been well assessed. This review was performed to assess the efficacy and safety of corticosteroids in patients with sepsis. Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library databases were searched from inception to March 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the effect of corticosteroids on patients with sepsis were included. The quality of outcomes in the included articles was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology. The data were pooled by using risk ratio (RR) and mean difference (MD). The random-effects model was used to evaluate the pooled MD or RR and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Fifty RCTs that included 12,304 patients with sepsis were identified. Corticosteroids were not associated with the mortality in 28-day (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.87-1.02; evidence rank, moderate) and long-term mortality (>60 days) (RR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.88-1.05) in patients with sepsis (evidence rank, low). However, corticosteroids may exert a significant effect on the mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU) (RR, 0.9; 95% CI, 0.83-0.97), in-hospital (RR, 0.9; 95% CI, 0.82-0.99; evidence rank, moderate) in patients with sepsis or septic shock (evidence rank, low). Furthermore, corticosteroids probably achieved a tiny reduction in the length of hospital stay and ICU. Corticosteroids were associated with a higher risk of hypernatremia and hyperglycemia; furthermore, they appear to have no significant effect on superinfection and gastroduodenal bleeding. Conclusions: Corticosteroids had no significant effect on the 28-day and long-term mortality; however, they decreased the ICU and hospital mortality. The findings suggest that the clinical corticosteroids may be an effective therapy for patients with sepsis during the short time. Systematic Review Registration: https://inplasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/INPLASY-Protocol-1074-4.pdf.
Indexed as
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.