Introduction
sepsis, critically ill
SEPSIS, CRITICAL ILLNESS, CRITICALLY ILL
There is evidence from randomized trials that vitamin C may be beneficial for critically ill patients. Oral and intravenous vitamin C shortened the length of ICU stay on average by 7.8% in a meta-analysis of 12 trials with 1766 patients [The potential benefits of vitamin C for sepsis have been reviewed [Two randomized trials found that vitamin C decreased mortality due to sepsis [The recent LOVIT trial also examined the effect of vitamin C on sepsis patients [We hypothesized that the harm in the vitamin C group may be explained by the rebound effect, by abrupt termination of treatment during the period of critical illness. Furthermore, our earlier analysis showed modification of the vitamin C effect by the termination of the vitamin [