[Regional citrate versus heparin anticoagulation in continuous renal replacement therapy in critically ill patients:...

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of regional citrate and heparin anticoagulation in continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) in critically ill patients by Meta-analysis.

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing the efficacy and safety of regional citrate and heparin anticoagulation in English or Chinese were retrieved from Medline, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang Database by electronic and manual search before December 2019. The primary outcomes were mortality and circuit life span, and the secondary outcomes were complications such as bleeding, heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), metabolic alkalosis, and hypocalcemia. Meta-analysis of the literature was conducted using the methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration's software RevMan 5.3 and funnel plot was used to analyze whether there was publication bias in each study.

Sixteen RCTs with 1 229 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference in mortality between the regional citrate and heparin anticoagulation in CRRT [relative risk (RR) = 0.95, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.83-1.09, P = 0.47]. The circuit life span in the regional citrate group was 15.37 hours (95%CI was 10.09-20.65, P < 0.000 01) longer than that in the heparin group. Bleeding risk (RR = 0.29, 95%CI was 0.19-0.44, P < 0.000 01) and HIT (RR = 0.35, 95%CI was 0.16-0.74, P = 0.006) were lower in the regional citrate group than those in the heparin group, whereas the regional citrate anticoagulation could cause hypocalcemia (RR = 4.67, 95%CI was 1.88-11.60, P = 0.000 9). There was no significant difference in the incidence of metabolic alkalosis between the two groups (RR = 0.76, 95%CI was 0.42-1.37, P = 0.36). The funnel plot showed that there were no significant publication bias in the included studies.

Regional citrate anticoagulation could significantly prolong circuit life span and decrease the risk of bleeding, and should be preferentially selected for the CRRT anticoagulation in critically ill patients.