Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37405413›Full record

ArticleIntensive care medicine2023

The effect of recombinant erythropoietin on long-term outcome after moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury.

Markus B Skrifvars, Nora Luethi, Michael Bailey, Craig French, Alistair Nichol, Tony Trapani, Colin McArthur, Yaseen M Arabi, Stepani Bendel, David J Cooper and 2 more

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Intensive care medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
2.5field-weighted citation impact, top 10% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Update on acute brain injury.Intensive care medicine · 2025
    Article
  4. Unlocking Novel Therapeutic Potential of Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Review
  5. Review
  6. Revisiting the critical roles of reactive microglia in traumatic brain injury.International journal of surgery (London, England) · 2025
    Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors at 9 institutions in 6 countries.

Markus B SkrifvarsDepartment of Emergency Medicine and Services, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, PB 340, 00029 HUS, Helsinki, Finland. markus.skrifvars@hus.fi.ORCID 0000-0002-0341-0262
Nora LuethiDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Michael BaileyAustralian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Craig FrenchDepartment of Intensive Care, Western Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Alistair NicholAustralian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Tony TrapaniAustralian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Colin McArthurDepartment of Critical Care Medicine, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand.
Yaseen M ArabiIntensive Care Department, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Stepani BendelDepartment of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Eastern, Kuopio, Finland.
David J CooperAustralian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Rinaldo BellomoDepartment of Intensive Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
EPO-TBI Investigators, the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group
Monash University · AUKing Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences · SAUniversity of Eastern Finland · FIUniversity of Helsinki · FIAuckland City Hospital · NZAustin Health · AUUniversity College Dublin · IEUniversity of Bern · CHWestern Health · AU

Funding

National Health and Medical Research Council 545902Transport Accident Commission D162
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeRecombinant erythropoietin (EPO) administered for traumatic brain injury (TBI) may increase short-term survival, but the long-term effect is unknown.

methodsWe conducted a pre-planned long-term follow-up of patients in the multicentre erythropoietin in TBI trial (2010-2015). We invited survivors to follow-up and evaluated survival and functional outcome with the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) (categories 5-8 = good outcome), and secondly, with good outcome determined relative to baseline function (sliding scale). We used survival analysis to assess time to death and absolute risk differences (ARD) to assess favorable outcomes. We categorized TBI severity with the International Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical Trials in TBI model. Heterogeneity of treatment effects were assessed with interaction p-values based on the following a priori defined subgroups, the severity of TBI, and the presence of an intracranial mass lesion and multi-trauma in addition to TBI.

resultsOf 603 patients in the original trial, 487 patients had survival data; 356 were included in the follow-up at a median of 6 years from injury. There was no difference between treatment groups for patient survival [EPO vs placebo hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73 (0.47-1.14) p = 0.17]. Good outcome rates were 110/175 (63%) in the EPO group vs 100/181 (55%) in the placebo group (ARD 8%, 95% CI [Formula: see text] 3 to 18%, p = 0.14). When good outcome was determined relative to baseline risk, the EPO groups had better GOSE (sliding scale ARD 12%, 95% CI 2-22%, p = 0.02). When considering long-term patient survival, there was no evidence for heterogeneity of treatment effect (HTE) according to severity of TBI (p = 0.85), presence of an intracranial mass lesion (p = 0.48), or whether the patient had multi-trauma in addition to TBI (p = 0.08). Similarly, no evidence of treatment heterogeneity was seen for the effect of EPO on functional outcome.

conclusionEPO neither decreased overall long-term mortality nor improved functional outcome in moderate or severe TBI patients treated in the intensive care unit (ICU). The limited sample size makes it difficult to make final conclusions about the use of EPO in TBI.

Indexed as

Brain Injuries, TraumaticErythropoietinMultiple TraumaHumansSurvival AnalysisTreatment OutcomeErythropoietinErythropoietinNeurological outcomeTraumatic brain injury

Identifiers

PMID37405413
PMCPMC10353955
OpenAlexW4383186341

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.