Fig. 1

Study design and flowchart of patient selection. A Schematic representation of study design. Patients had to be alive and in the ICU during the first 72 h and were subsequently assigned to the erythromycin group or control group depending on whether they received low-dose erythromycin during these 72 h. The follow-up started after 72 h and lasted until day 90 after ICU admission. B Flowchart of patient selection. *These 101 patients were included in a sensitivity analysis. ICU intensive care unit