[Effect of terlipressin on prognosis of adult septic shock patients: a Meta-analysis].

Objective To investigate the effect of terlipressin on prognosis of adult septic shock patients. Methods All randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT) of terlipressin in the treatment of adult septic shock patients from January 1980 to December 2019 were retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, SinoMed, PubMed, Embase, Springer Link, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and etc. Patients in the treatment group received terlipressin while patients in the control group received norepinephrine or other vasopressors. Main outcome indicator was mortality. Secondary outcome indicators included the incidence of severe adverse events, limb peripheral ischemic events and renal complications. Literature screening, data extraction and quality evaluation were conducted by two researchers respectively. Meta-analysis was performed with RevMan 5.3 software. Funnel plot was used to analyze the publication bias. Results A total of 507 related literatures were retrieved. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 8 RCT studies were finally included, with a total of 811 patients. One study was considered to have a lower risk of bias, 6 studies had uncertain risk of bias, and 1 study had a higher risk of bias. The Meta-analysis showed that terlipressin did not significantly improve the mortality of septic shock patients compared with the control group [odds ratio (OR) = 0.89, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.67-1.19, P = 0.45]; increased the incidence of severe adverse events (OR = 2.98, 95%CI was 1.99-4.45, P < 0.000 01); there was a tendency to increase the incidence of limb peripheral ischemic events, but without statistical difference (OR = 10.81, 95%CI was 0.88-133.19, P = 0.06); and reduced the incidence of renal complications (OR = 0.30, 95%CI was 0.09-0.96, P = 0.04). Funnel plot analysis indicated that there might be publication bias in a study on case fatality and incidence of serious adverse events in the included literature. No significant publication bias was found in studies on the incidence of limb peripheral ischemic events and the incidence of kidney-related complications. Conclusions The available evidence suggests that terlipressin could not significantly improve mortality in adult's septic shock patients, but it may reduce the incidence of renal complications. A tendency to increase the incidence of limb peripheral ischemic events in the terlipressin-treated group needs to be emphasized. Key words: Sepsis; Septic shock; Terlipressin; Norepinephrine