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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Selenium supplementation for critically ill adults

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, July 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (80th percentile)
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8 X users
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2 Facebook pages
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1 Wikipedia page

Citations

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72 Dimensions

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242 Mendeley
Title
Selenium supplementation for critically ill adults
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, July 2015
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd003703.pub3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Mikkel Allingstrup, Arash Afshari

Abstract

Selenium is a trace mineral essential to health and has an important role in immunity, defence against tissue damage and thyroid function. Improving selenium status could help protect against overwhelming tissue damage and infection in critically ill adults. This Cochrane review was originally published in 2004 updated in 2007 and again 2015. The primary objective was to examine the effect of nutrition supplemented with selenium or ebselen on mortality in critically ill patients.The secondary objective was to examine the relationship between selenium or ebselen supplementation and number of infections, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of intensive care unit stay and length of hospital stay. In this update, we searched the current issue of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Library (2014, Issue 5); MEDLINE (Ovid SP, to May 20, 2014), EMBASE (Ovid SP, to May 20, 2014), CAB, BIOSIS and CINAHL. We handsearched the reference lists of the newest reviews and cross-checked with our search in MEDLINE. We contacted the main authors of included studies to request any missed, unreported or ongoing studies. The latest search was performed up to 21 May 2014. The search is now from inception until 21 May 2014. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) irrespective of publication status, date of publication, blinding status, outcomes published or language. We contacted the trial investigators and authors in order to retrieve relevant and missing data. Two review authors independently extracted data and we resolved any disagreements by discussion. Our primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality. We performed several subgroup and sensitivity analyses to assess the effects of selenium in critically ill patients. We presented pooled estimates of the effects of intervention as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We assessed the risk of bias through assessment of trial methodological components and the risk of random error through trial sequential analysis. We included six new RCTs in this review update. In total we included 16 RCTs (2084 participants) in this review. Most trials were at high risk of bias. The availability of outcome data was limited and trials involving selenium supplementation were, with the exception of one trial, small regarding sample size. Thus the results must be interpreted with caution.Thirteen trials of intravenous sodium selenite showed a statistically significant reduction in overall mortality (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.93, 1391 participants, very low quality of evidence). However, the overall point estimate on mortality is primarily influenced by trials of high risk of bias. Meta-analysis of three trials of ebselen had a RR of 0.83 (95% CI 0.52 to 1.34, 693 participants, very low quality of evidence).Nine trials of intravenous sodium selenite were analysed for 28 days mortality with no statistically significant difference (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.69 to 1.02, 1180 participants, very low quality of evidence) while three trials were analysed for 90 days mortality with similar findings (RR 0.96, 95% Cl 0.78 to 1.18, 614 participants, very low quality of evidence).Two trials of ebselen were analysed for 90 days mortality and were not found to yield any benefit (RR 0.72, 95% Cl 0.42 to 1.22, 588 participants, very low quality of evidence).For mortality among intensive care patients selenium supplementation failed to indicate any statistically significant advantage (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.01, nine trials, 1168 participants, very low quality of evidence).Six trials of intravenous sodium selenite found no statistically significant difference for participants developing infection (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.23, 934 patients, very low quality of evidence). Similarly, three trials of ebselen provided data for participants developing infections (pyrexia, respiratory infections or meningitis) with no obvious benefit (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.36 to 1.02, 685 participants, very low quality of evidence).Our analyses showed no effect of selenium or ebselen on adverse events (Selenium: RR 1.03, 95% Cl 0.85 to 1.24; six trials, 925 participants ; Ebselen: RR 1.16, 95% CI 0.40 to 3.36; two trials, 588 participants, very low quality of evidence).No clear evidence emerged in favour of selenium supplementation for outcomes such as number of days on a ventilator (mean difference (MD) -0.86, 95% CI -4.39 to 2.67, four trials, 191 participants, very low quality of evidence), length of intensive care unit stay (MD 0.54, 95% CI -2.27 to 3.34, seven trials, 934 participants, very low quality of evidence) or length of hospital stay (MD -3.33, 95% Cl -5.22 to -1.44, five trials, 693 participants, very low quality of evidence).The quality of trial methodology was low. Due to high risk of bias in the included trials, results must be interpreted with caution. Despite publication of a number of trials, the current evidence to recommend supplementation of critically ill patients with selenium or ebselen remains disputed. Trials are required which overcome the methodological inadequacies of the reviewed studies, particularly in relation to sample size, design and outcomes.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 242 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 240 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 34 14%
Researcher 30 12%
Student > Bachelor 27 11%
Student > Postgraduate 16 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 12 5%
Other 43 18%
Unknown 80 33%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 76 31%
Nursing and Health Professions 29 12%
Social Sciences 9 4%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 7 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 2%
Other 31 13%
Unknown 84 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 November 2020.
All research outputs
#4,680,622
of 25,457,297 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#6,822
of 11,499 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#53,773
of 274,722 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#152
of 256 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,297 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 81st percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,499 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.0. This one is in the 40th percentile – i.e., 40% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 274,722 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 256 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.