Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37422686›Full record

SynthesisCritical care (London, England)2023

Efficacy and safety of adjunctive corticosteroids in the treatment of severe community-acquired pneumonia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Jheng-Yan Wu, Ya-Wen Tsai, Wan-Hsuan Hsu, Ting-Hui Liu, Po-Yu Huang, Min-Hsiang Chuang, Mei-Yuan Liu, Chih-Cheng Lai

Erratum issuedAbstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Critical care (London, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 39 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
39citing papers in PubMed, 11 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

39 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  15. Challenges and opportunities in the management of severe pneumonia. Key concepts from the Seventh Annual Meeting of Spanish Experts 2025.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2026
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Jheng-Yan Wu *Department of Nutrition, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Ya-Wen Tsai *Center of Integrative Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Wan-Hsuan HsuDepartment of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Ting-Hui LiuDepartment of Psychiatry, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Po-Yu HuangDepartment of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Min-Hsiang ChuangDepartment of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Mei-Yuan LiuDepartment of Nutrition, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan.
Chih-Cheng LaiDivision of Hospital Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan. dtmed141@gmail.com.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThis systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of systemic corticosteroids in the treatment of patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP).

methodsA comprehensive search was conducted using the Medline, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Scopus databases for articles published until April 24, 2023. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the clinical efficacy and safety of adjunctive corticosteroids for treating sCAP were included. The primary outcome was the 30-day all-cause mortality.

resultsA total of severe RCTs involving 1689 patients were included in this study. Overall, the study group had a lower mortality rate at day 30 than the control group (risk ratio [RR], 0.61; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.85; p < 0.01) with low heterogeneity (I

conclusionsIn patients with sCAP, adjunctive corticosteroids can provide survival benefits and improve clinical outcomes without increasing adverse events. However, because the pooled evidence remains inconclusive, further studies are required.

Indexed as

Community-Acquired InfectionsPneumoniaAdrenal Cortex HormonesHumansRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicRespiration, ArtificialAdrenal Cortex HormonesCommunity-acquired pneumoniaCorticosteroidHydrocortisoneIntensive care unitMortality

Identifiers

PMID37422686
PMCPMC10329791

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.