Table 2 Assessment sheet of overall quality of evidence by Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) guidelines
Certainty assessment | No of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Surgery | Control | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) | ||
All-cause mortality | ||||||||||||
9 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousb | Publication bias strongly suspectedc | 7/423 (1.7%) | 18/439 (4.1%) | RR 0.53 (0.21 to 1.38) | 19 fewer per 1,000 (from 32 fewer to 16 more) | ⨁◯◯◯ Very low | |
Pneumonia | ||||||||||||
8 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 51/362 (14.1%) | 93/376 (24.7%) | RR 0.57 (0.35 to 0.92) | 106 fewer per 1,000 (from 161 to 20 fewer) | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate | |
Tracheostomy | ||||||||||||
6 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Not serious | Not serious | Seriousb,d | None | 42/291 (14.4%) | 63/297 (21.2%) | RR 0.70 (0.38 to 1.30) | 64 fewer per 1,000 (from 132 fewer to 64 more) | ⨁⨁◯◯ Low | |
Length of ICU stay | ||||||||||||
8 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Seriouse | Not serious | Not serious | Publication bias strongly suspectedc | 372 | 380 | – | MD 3.05 days lower (5.87 lower to 0.22 lower) | ⨁◯◯◯ Very low | |
Length of hospital stay | ||||||||||||
7 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Seriouse | Not serious | Seriousd | None | 354 | 361 | – | MD 3.79 days lower (9.33 lower to 1.75 higher) | ⨁◯◯◯ Very low | |
Duration of mechanical ventilation | ||||||||||||
7 | Randomised trials | Seriousa | Seriouse | Not serious | Not serious | None | 300 | 304 | – | MD 4.62 days lower (7.64 lower to 1.6 lower) | ⨁⨁◯◯ Low | |