To systematically evaluate the effect of hydrocortisone combined with vitamin C and vitamin B1 on the efficacy of patients with sepsis or septic shock.

Databases including CNKI, Sino Med, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched from inception to January 2021 for the randomized controlled trial (RCT) about hydrocortisone combined with vitamin C and vitamin B1 to treat sepsis or septic shock. The experimental group was given intravenous injection of hydrocortisone, vitamin B1 and vitamin C based on conventional treatment; the control group was given conventional treatment or placebo/hydrocortisone/hydrocortisone+vitamin B1 based on conventional treatment. Outcome indicators included sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), mortality, the duration of vasoactive drugs, new acute kidney injury (AKI) patients, length of stay in intensive care unit (ICU) and in hospital. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted data, and evaluated the risk of bias in the included studies. RevMan 5.3 software was then used to perform Meta-analysis. Funnel plot was used to test publication bias.

A total of 6 articles involving 816 patients were included, with 411 patients in the experimental group and 405 patients in the control group. The Meta-analysis results showed that the duration of vasoactive drugs in the experimental group was significantly shorter than that in the control group [mean difference (MD) = -24.02, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was -32.36 to -15.68, P < 0.000 01]. However, there were no significant differences in SOFA, mortality, new AKI patients, the length of ICU stay and hospital stay between the two groups [SOFA: MD = -0.14, 95%CI was -1.15 to 0.87, P = 0.79; mortality: relative risk (RR) = 0.99, 95%CI was 0.81 to 1.21, P = 0.92; new AKI patients: RR = 1.10, 95%CI was 0.42 to 2.87, P = 0.84; length of ICU stay: MD = 1.33, 95%CI was -2.22 to 4.89, P = 0.46; length of hospital stay: MD = 1.02, 95%CI was -0.66 to 2.69, P = 0.23]. The funnel plot showed that most of the points were symmetrical and showed an inverted funnel shape, suggesting that the publication bias among the studies was small. There was no significant publication bias on this Meta-analysis.

Hydrocortisone combined with vitamin C and vitamin B1 can shorten the duration of vasoactive drugs in patients with sepsis or septic shock, but it cannot effectively reduce the SOFA score, mortality, new AKI patients, length of stay in ICU and in hospital. Limited by the number and quality of the included studies, further large-scale, multi-center, blinded, RCT are still needed for verification.

Hydrocortisone; Vitamin C; Vitamin B1; Sepsis; Septic shock; Meta-analysis