Table 4 Comparison with prior meta-analyses
| Heyland et al. [6] | Marik et al. [7] | Ho et al. [8] | Jiyong et al. [9] | Alhazzani et al. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of RCTs (patients) | 10 (576) | 9 (522) | 11 (637) | 15 (966) | 19 (1394) |
| Population | Adult critically ill | Adult critically ill | Adult critically ill | Adults and pediatric critically ill | Adult critically ill |
|
Outcomes
(number of RCTs) |
Pneumonia (7) Mortality (9) Nutritional delivery (9) |
Pneumonia (7) Nutritional delivery (6) ICU LoS (5) Mortality (7) |
Pneumonia (7) Mortality (8) ICU LoS (5) Aspiration (2) Diarrhea (5) Complications (5) Nutritional delivery (7) |
Pneumonia (11) Aspiration (7) Vomiting (6) |
Pneumonia (12) Mortality (15) ICU LoS (8) DMV (3) GI bleeding (6) Aspiration (6) Vomiting (6) Nutritional delivery (15) |
|
Pneumonia
RR (95% CI) | 0.76 (0.59, 0.99) |
1.44 (0.84, 2.46) a in favor of small bowel feeding |
1.28 (0.91, 1.80) b in favor of small bowel feeding | 0.63 (0.48, 0.83) | 0.70 (0.55, 0.90) |
| Comments | Different methods in data abstraction, and inclusion of studies with multiple interventions that should be excluded | Aspiration events was analyzed as pneumonia in one of the studies | Combined pneumonia and aspiration as a single outcome |
Combined adult and pediatric studies. Did not include data from most recent RCTs |
