Adjuvant Administration of Vitamin C Improves Mortality of Patients with Sepsis and Septic Shock: A Systems Review and Meta-Analysis

The aim of this study was to examine whether vitamin C reduced mortality when adjutant therapy of patients with septic shock and severe sepsis compared with placebo by meta-analysis. Eligible trials were identified from Pubmed, Embase, Ovid, and the Cochrane database. Four randomized controlled trials (RCT) and two retrospective studies were published between 2000 and 2017 met the inclusion criteria and suitable for meta-analysis. The data were analyzed with randomized-effects or fixed-effects models using Review Manager Version 5.3. Four randomized studies with a total of 109 participants were suitable for meta-analysis. The heterogeneity was assessed by calculating the Q and I2 methods. A random-effects approach instead of a fixed-effects analysis was undertaken if I2 > 50%. Adjuvant vitamin C did not associate with a reduction in mortality as compared with placebo, it is occurred similarly in both RCT studies and retrospective studies. However, high doses of vitamin C (>50 mg/kg/day) significant reduced the mortality rate of severe sepsis patients. And administration of high doses of vitamin C to therapy severe sepsis did not significantly reduce the ICU length of stay. The results suggested a trend toward reducing mortality in severe sepsis and septic shock patients’ adjuvant with vitamin C. Further multicenter large randomized controlled trials are necessary to determine the potential benefits of vitamin C in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.