Research Question:
Patients with sepsis (blood poisoning) benefit from swallowing selenium supplements?
Study Design:
This overview article contained 9 RCTs with 792 patients with sepsis.
Results and conclusions:
The researchers found that the risk of swallowing selenium mortality among patients with sepsis significantly with 27% [95% CI = 0.54-0.98, p = 0.03, I2 = 0%] reduced.
The researchers found that taking selenium had no significant influence on getting a nosocomial pneumonia (pneumonia after at least 48 hours at a hospital). The odds ratio was 0.83 [95% CI = 0.28-2.49, p = 0.74, I2 = 56%].
The researchers concluded that swallowing of selenium (higher than the recommended daily allowance) reduced the risk of mortality among patients with sepsis.
Original title:
The Effect or Selenium Therapy on Mortality in Patients With Sepsis Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials by Jacobi J, Alhazzani W, [...], Jaeschke, RZ.
Additional information about El Mondo:
Read more about selenium.
A well-known example of a type of blood poisoning (sepsis) is the meningococcen sepsis.
People with an increased risk of sepsis are:
- Cancer patients especially those that have been treated with chemotherapy.
- Elderly because that often have a less effective immune system.
- Children under 4 years.
- Postoperative patients.
- Patients with impaired immunity (Aids patients, patients with immunosuppressive drugs, such as Crohn's disease or rheumatism).