SynthesisAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy2025
Continuous or extended vs intermittent infusions of beta-lactam antibiotics in ICU patients with pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comparative efficacy and safety of extended versus continuous infusion of beta-lactam antibiotics for severe infection: a network meta-analysis of randomized trials.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Article
- Which beta-lactam infusion strategy is superior in ICU pneumonia? A Bayesian network meta-analysis of continuous, extended, and intermittent approaches.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2026Article
- CEFEPIME/ENMETAZOBACTAM: Physicochemical Stability of a Novel β-Lactam/β-Lactamase Inhibitor Combination in Syringes and Elastomeric Devices.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with pneumonia was conducted to compare the clinical outcomes of beta-lactam antibiotics when administered by prolonged infusion vs intermittent infusion. The systematic search was conducted in Medline (via PubMed), CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and ClinicalTrials.gov. The outcomes were mortality, clinical cure rate, microbiological cure rate, adverse events, and ICU length of stay. The pooled risk ratios or mean differences were estimated by the fixed or random effect methods according to heterogeneity statistics. Twelve eligible RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. ICU length of stay was lower in the prolonged infusion patients compared with intermittent infusion. However, compared to intermittent infusion, the prolonged infusion, both continuous and extended infusion, of beta-lactam antibiotics was not associated with statistically significant improvements in mortality, clinical cure rate, microbiological cure rate, and rate of adverse events. For the treatment of ICU patients with pneumonia, prolonged infusion was associated with a shorter ICU length of stay. Multicenter RCTs with large sample sizes of ICU patients with pneumonia are needed to better assess other important endpoints.
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.