Prolonged versus intermittent β-lactam infusion in sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateNot applicable. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding None."

"This meta-analysis was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement []. The protocol of our review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023463905) in September 2023. Ethical approval was not required for this systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases for original randomized controlled trials comparing prolonged and intermittent β-lactam infusion in sepsis patients. A random-effects model was used to evaluate mortality, clinical success, microbiological success, and adverse events. We also conducted subgroup analyses to explore the impact of various factors on the mortality rates. Relative risk (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to calculate the overall effect sizes for dichotomous outcomes. This meta-analysis was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023463905)."