Tight glycemic control in critically ill pediatric patients: a meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND

There still are controversies in the impact of tight glycemic control (TGC) in critically ill children. The aim of this study was to assess the benefits and risks of TGC compared with conventional glycemic control (CGC) in critically ill pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by using data retrieved from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

METHOD

EMBASE, CNKI, PubMed, and the Cochrane Database were searched for RCTs comparing TGC with CGC in critically ill children in PICU.

RESULT

The meta-analysis included five RCTs representing 3933 patients and compared TGC with CGC. Our result revealed that TGC did not reduce the 30-day mortality rates (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.74-1.32, P = 0.95) and was not associated with decreasing health care-associated infections (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.64-1.00, P = 0.05) compared with CGC, but significantly increased the incidence of hypoglycemia (OR 6.37, 95% CI 4.41-9.21, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Tight glycemic control was not associated with reducing the 30-day mortality rates and acquired infections compared with CGC in critically ill children. Significant increase of the incidence of hypoglycemia was revealed in TGC group. The conclusion should be interpreted with caution for the methodological heterogeneity among trials.