Guideline-based and restricted fluid resuscitation strategy in sepsis patients with heart failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To examine whether a fluid resuscitation strategy based on guidelines (at least 30 mL/kg IV crystalloids) vs. a restrictive approach with <30 mL/kg within three hours affects in-hospital mortality in patients with sepsis and a history of heart failure (HF). Data sources: On 03/07/2023, we searched Embase, PubMed, and Scopus for peer-reviewed papers and abstracts using the PRISMA guidelines. Study selection: The language was limited to English. Studies published since 2016 included if they had sepsis patients with a history of HF, or a subgroup of patientswith HF, and in-hospitalmortality data on these patients that did or did notmeet the 30 mL/kg by 3 h (30 x 3) goal. Duplicate studies, studies that focused on a broader period than 3 h from the diagnosis of sepsis or without mortality breakdown for HF patients or with unrelated title/abstract, or without an IRB approval were excluded. Data extraction: In-hospitalmortality datawas taken from the final studies for HF patientswith sepsiswho did or did not meet the 30 x 3 goal. Data synthesis: The meta-analysis was performed using the Review Manager 5.4 program with ORs as the effect measure. The ProMeta program version 3.0 was used to evaluate the publication bias. Egger's linear regression and Berg andMazumdar's rank correlationwas used to evaluate the publication bias. The resultwas visually represented by a funnel plot. To estimate the proportion of variance attributable to heterogeneity, the I2 statistic was calculated. Results: The search yielded 26,069 records, which were narrowed down to 4 studies. Compared to those who met the 30 x 3 goal, the <30 x 3 group had a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality (OR= 1.81, 95% CI = 1.13-2.89, P = 0.01). Conclusions: Restrictive fluid resuscitation increased the risk of in-hospital mortality in HF patients with sepsis. More rigorous research is required to determine the optimal fluid resuscitation strategy for this population. (c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Inc.