Trial reportEuropean journal of clinical nutrition2023
Abrupt termination of vitamin C from ICU patients may increase mortality: secondary analysis of the LOVIT trial.
Trial report in European journal of clinical nutrition, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 4 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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Clinical benefits and risks of high-dose intravenous vitamin C: a systematic review.Journal of medicine and life · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of vitamin C supplementation in the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Vitamin C deficiency can lead to pulmonary hypertension: a systematic review of case reports.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Vitamin C may reduce troponin and CKMB levels after PCI and CABG: a meta-analysis.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2023Pooled it
- A randomized trial of ascorbic acid for the prevention of post-reperfusion syndrome during liver transplantation.Hepatology communications · 2025Trial
- Relationship Between Hypovitaminosis C, Obesity, and Features of Metabolic Syndrome-A Narrative Review.Nutrition reviews · 2026Review
- Vitamin C Supplementation in Hospitalized Patients With Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Vitamin C Supplementation During Intensive Care Unit Stay Is Associated With Improved Outcomes in Critically Ill Patients With Sepsis-Induced Coagulopathy: A Cohort Study.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Vitamin C in Sepsis: Exploring Its Role in Modulating Inflammation and Oxidative Stress.Cureus · 2025Article
- Role of intravenous vitamin C on outcomes in hospitalized patients with moderate or severe COVID-19: a real life data of Turkish patients.Inflammopharmacology · 2025Article
- Vitamin C for sepsis: from mechanisms to individualized therapy.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Predicting hypovitaminosis C with LASSO algorithm in adult critically ill patients in surgical intensive care units: a bi-center prospective cohort study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Rebound effect explains the divergence in survival after 5 days in a controlled trial on vitamin C for COVID-19 patients.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Vitamin C for patients with sepsis?Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Concerns with the revised Japanese recommendation for administering vitamin C to septic patients.Journal of intensive care · 2023Article
- LOVIT or leave it: The vitamin C debate continues.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2023Article
- Scurvy: Rediscovering a Forgotten Disease.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe LOVIT trial examined the effect of vitamin C on sepsis patients, and concluded that in adults with sepsis receiving vasopressor therapy in the ICU, those who received 4-day intravenous vitamin C had a higher risk of death or persistent organ dysfunction at 28 days than those who received placebo. The aim of this study was to determine whether the abrupt termination of vitamin C administration could explain the increased mortality in the vitamin C group.
methodsWe used Cox regression with two time periods to model the distribution of deaths over the first 11 days in the LOVIT trial.
resultsCompared with a uniform difference between vitamin C and placebo groups over the 11-day follow-up period, addition of a separate vitamin C effect starting from day 5 improved the fit of the Cox model (p = 0.026). There was no difference in mortality between the groups during the 4-day vitamin C administration with RR = 0.97 (95% CI: 0.65-1.44). During the week after the sudden termination of vitamin C, there were 57 deaths in the vitamin C group, but only 32 deaths in the placebo group, with RR = 1.9 (95% CI: 1.2-2.9; p = 0.004).
conclusionThe increased mortality in the vitamin C group in the LOVIT trial is not explained by ongoing vitamin C administration, but by the abrupt termination of vitamin C. The LOVIT trial findings should not be interpreted as evidence against vitamin C therapy for critically ill patients.
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