Contemporary trends in global mortality of sepsis among young infants less than 90 days old: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Neonatal sepsis has a high mortality rate that varies across different populations. We aim to perform a contemporary global evidence synthesis to determine the case fatality rates of neonatal sepsis, in order to better delineate this public health urgency and inform strategies to reduce fatality in this high-risk population. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will search PubMed, Cochrane Central, Embase and Web of Science for articles in English language published between January 2010 and December 2019. All clinical trials and observational studies involving infants less than 90 days old with a clinical diagnosis of sepsis and reported case fatality rate will be included. Two independent reviewers will screen the studies and extract data on study variables chosen a priori. Quality of evidence and risk of bias will be assessed using Cochrane Collaboration’s tool and ROBINS-I. Results will be synthesised qualitatively and pooled for meta-analysis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No formal ethical approval is required as there is no collection of primary data. This systematic review and meta-analysis will be disseminated through conference meetings and peer-reviewed publications. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020164321.