Practice patterns and outcomes associated with early sedation depth in mechanically ventilated patients: a systematic review protocol

INTRODUCTION: Mechanical ventilation is a commonly performed intervention in critically ill patients. Frequently, these patients experience deep sedation early in their clinical course. Emerging data suggest that the practice of early deep sedation may negatively impact patient outcomes. The purpose of this review is to assess the world’s literature to describe and determine the impact of early deep sedation on the outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies will be eligible for inclusion in this systematic review. With the assistance of a medical librarian, we will comprehensively search MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Database of Abstracts of Reviews and Effects, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for peer-reviewed literature. Grey literature from appropriate professional society conferences, held from 2010 to 2017, will be reviewed manually. Two authors will independently review all search results, and disagreements will be resolved through arbitration by a third author. If appropriate, meta-analysis will be used for quantitative analysis of the data. Heterogeneity between studies will be assessed using the I(2) statistic. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The proposed systematic review will not collect data that are associated with individual patients and does not require ethical approval. Results of this study will contribute to the understanding of early sedation, identify future research targets and guide early care in mechanically ventilated patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: This systematic review has been registered in the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO #CRD42017057264).