Efficacy of zinc supplementation for neonatal sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Zinc supplementation has some potential in treating neonatal sepsis. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the efficacy of zinc supplementation for neonatal sepsis. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of science, EBSCO, and Cochrane Library databases are systematically searched. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the efficacy of zinc supplementation in neonatal sepsis are included. Two investigators independently search articles, extract the data, and assessed the quality of included studies. Meta-analysis is performed using the random-effect model. Results: Four RCTs involving 986 patients are included in the meta-analysis. Overall, compared with control intervention in neonatal sepsis, zinc supplementation is able to significantly reduce mortality rate (risk ratio (RR) = 0.48; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) = 0.25-0.94; p = .03) and improve serum zinc (mean difference (MD) = 81.97; 95% CI = 34.57-129.37; p = .0007), but has no remarkable influence on hospital stay (MD = -4.51; 95% CI = -15.08 to 6.05; p = .40) and the number of expired patients (RR = 0.63; 95% CI = 0.24-1.65; p = .35). Conclusions: Zinc supplementation may significantly reduce mortality rate and improve serum zinc in neonatal sepsis, but has no substantial influence on hospital stay and the number of expired patients.