Table 1 Characteristics of included trials
Article | Number of patients | Number of research centers | Sepsis severity | APACHE II scores | Design | Intervention | Quality assessment | Outcome | Â |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Warren et al. [24] | 1157 | 211 | Severe sepsis | 49 (16)* | NRCT | Study group: Unfractionated or low-molecular-weight heparin for venous thrombosis prophylaxis (≤10000 IU subcutaneous per day), and heparin flushes for vascular catheter patency (IV of ≤ 2 IU per kilogram of body weight per hour). Control group: 1% human albumin. | 5 (Silber) | Mortality (28-d) Bleeding effects | Prophylactic |
Bernard et al. [26] | 840 | 164 | Severe sepsis | 25 (7.8) | NRCT | Study group: a dose of unfractionated heparin of up to 15,000 U per day. Control group: 0.9% saline with or without 0.1% human serum albumin. | 5 (Silber) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Abraham et al.[25] | 992 | 245 | Severe sepsis | 25 (7.2) | NRCT | Study group: at least 1 dose of unfractionated heparin or low-molecular-weight heparin for 120 hours. Control group: arginine citrate buffer. | 5 (Silber) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Bleeding effects | |||||||||
Ai et al. [8] | 40 | 1 | Sepsis | 15 (4.1) | RCT | Study group: low-molecular-weight heparin 5000 IU subcutaneous per 12 hours for 7 days. Control group: placebo. | 1 (Jadad) | Mortality (28-d ) | Prophylactic |
Bleeding effects | |||||||||
Zhang et al.[7] | 22 | 1 | Severe sepsis | __ | RCT | Study group: IV heparin (3~4) U/kg/h for 7 days. Control group: placebo. | 3 (Jadad) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Bleeding effects | |||||||||
Jaimes et al. [23] | 317 | 1 | Sepsis | 9.5 (1.7) | RCT | Study group: Unfractionated heparin 500 units/hour for 7 days. Control group: placebo. | 7 (Jadad) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Bleeding effects | |||||||||
Zhao et al. [4] | 79 | 1 | Sepsis | 15 (5.3) | RCT | Study group: heparin sodium IVGTT of 40 ~ 50 mg/d for 5–7 days. Control group: placebo. | 4 (Jadad) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Bleeding effects | |||||||||
Yang et al.[27] | 119 | 1 | Sepsis | __ | RCT | Study group: heparin sodium IVGTT of 2 mg/kg/d. Control group: 0.9% saline. | 5 (Jadad) | Bleeding effects | Prophylactic |
Liu et al.[28] | 37 | 1 | Sepsis | 20 (6.2) | RCT | Study group: 70 U/kg/24 h heparin was administered by continuous infusion for 5–7 days | 3 (Jadad) | Mortality (28-d) | Prophylactic |
Control group: saline. |