Recombinant human soluble thrombomodulin and short-term mortality of infection patients with DIC: a meta-analysis

Several studies have demonstrated that recombinant human soluble thrombomodulin (rhTM) has potential advantages for the treatment for patients with infection complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). However, whether injection of rhTM can affect the mortality of those patients in clinical treatment remains controversial. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the clinical efficacy for patients with infection complicated by DIC.

The PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant articles that met the inclusion criteria through April 2016. Reference lists of the retrieved articles were also reviewed. The 28- or 30-day mortality and bleeding risk after using rhTM were evaluated.

Ten observational studies and 2 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 18288 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The risk ratio for the 28- or 30-day mortality was 0.81 (95% confidence interval, 0.61-1.06) in RCT studies and 0.96 (95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.01) in observational studies. There were no significant differences in the bleeding risk between the rhTM group and the control group.

Based on the current studies, using rhTM for the treatment for infection patients complicated with DIC does not decrease the short-term mortality of those patients. More high-quality RCT studies need to be performed to confirm this finding.