Factors Affecting Mortality in Critically Ill Patients With Tuberculosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Critically ill patients with tuberculosis carry high mortality. Identification of factors associated with mortality in critically ill tuberculosis patients may enable focused treatment.

An extensive literature search of PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar was performed using Medical Subject Headings terms "tuberculosis," "critical care," "critical care outcome," and "ICU." We aimed to identify factors affecting mortality in critically ill tuberculosis patients.

All the studies comparing factors affecting mortality between survivors and nonsurvivors in critically ill tuberculosis patients were included. The database search yielded a total of 3017 records, of which 17 studies were included in the meta-analysis.

Data were collected including the name of the author, year and country of publication, duration of the study, number of patients studied, type of tuberculosis, patient demography, smoking history, laboratory parameters, comorbidities, the requirement for mechanical ventilation, duration of ventilation, ICU and hospital length of stay (LOS), type of lung involvement, complications, and outcomes.

The major factors that contributed to mortality in critically ill tuberculosis patients were age, platelet count, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), the requirement and duration of invasive mechanical ventilation, Pa o2 /F io2 ratio, presence of acute respiratory distress syndrome, shock, hospital-acquired infections, renal replacement therapy, and ICU and hospital LOS.

Patient age, platelet count, albumin and CRP levels, the requirement and duration of invasive mechanical ventilation, Pa o2 /F io2 ratio, hospital-acquired infections, renal replacement therapy, and ICU LOS were variables associated with mortality.