(563) Enteral Glutamine Supplementation in Burn Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of RCTs

Introduction: Glutamine plays a vital role in several metabolic processes and acts as a foundation of mechanisms that promote cell resistance to injury and death. The role of enteral glutamine in burn patients is unclear. We performed this meta-analysis to establish the role of glutamine in the management of burn injury patients.

Methods: We searched various electronic databases including MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, and trial registries to retrieve randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the use of enteral glutamine for burn patients. We performed statistical analysis in RevMan 5.4 using the random-effects model. We reported dichotomous outcomes as relative risk (RR) along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and continuous outcomes as mean difference (MD) along with 95% CIs.

Results: Our meta-analysis included 7 RCTs involving 1362 patients. Our primary outcome, all-cause mortality was reported by 5 studies and was found to be comparable between the glutamine and control groups (RR= 0.66, 95% CI=0.22-1.94). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the incidence of infection (RR=0.93, 95% CI=0.67-1.30) and length of hospital stay (RR= -4.76, 95% CI=-10.63-1.11).

Conclusions: The enteral administration of glutamine does not decrease mortality or prevent infections in burn patients. Further high-quality, large-scale RCTs are needed to provide conclusive evidence.