A study of vitamin D level in critically ill patients and effect of supplementation on clinical outcome

Background: Supplementation of Vitamin-D in Vitamin-D deficient patients may reduce morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients in ICU. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate serum level of Vitamin-D in critically ill patients and supplementation of vitamin-D in deficient patients and finally to compare clinical outcomes between two groups. Settings and Design: Randomized, prospective and comparative study. Materials and Methods: In this study, serum vitamin-D level was investigated in recruited patients and vitamin-D deficient patients were randomly allocated into two groups viz; group-1, group-2. Vitamin-D (sachet CALCIROL 60,000 IU) supplementation was done once a week and twice a week in in group-1 and group-2 respectively, clinical outcomes between two groups were compared in terms of length of ICU stay, need for inotropic support, need for mechanical ventilation and 28 days ICU mortality. Statistical Analysis: Mean and standard deviation were calculated. Test of analysis between two groups was done by t-test and then P value was calculated. Results: No significant difference was found between two groups whether vitamin D supplementation done once or twice weekly (P = 0.24) in terms of length of ICU stay. Patients of group-2 required significantly less inotropic support as compared to group-1 (P = 0.037). There was no significant difference found in duration of mechanical ventilation (P = 0.138) and 28 days ICU mortality (P = 0.284). Conclusion: From the above results we concluded that vitamin D supplementation in high dosages may be started in all critically ill patients, who are deficient in serum vitamin D level to get better clinical outcomes.