“…We initially retrieved 172 studies. Seventeen of them, enrolling 1,472 critically ill patients, were included for qualitative (descriptive) synthesis ( 5 - 7 , 12 , 15 - 17 , 25 - 34 ) , and ten, including 704 patients, were included for quantitative synthesis ( 5 , 12 , 17 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 31 - 34 ) ( Figure 1 ). Out of the final seventeen articles included, four were retrospective observational studies,(5,26,33,34) and thirteen(6,7,12,15-17,25,27-32) were prospective observational studies.…”