The Impact of Accidental Hypothermia on Mortality in Trauma Patients Overall and Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury Specifically: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Accidental hypothermia is a known predictor for worse outcomes in trauma patients, but has not been comprehensively assessed in meta-analysis so far. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the impact of accidental hypothermia on mortality in trauma patients overall and patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) specifically.

Literature search will be conducted using the Ovid Medline/PubMed database. The search strategy will be based on the PICOS strategy.

Scientific articles reporting (1) accidental hypothermia in trauma patients overall or patients with TBI specifically, (2) body temperature and time of measurement, and (3) the impact of accidental hypothermia on outcomes will be included in the qualitative review.

Two meta-analyses will be performed including (1) trauma patients overall and (2) patients with TBI specifically. Studies reporting in-hospital mortality of hypothermic and normothermic trauma patients overall or patients with TBI specifically, based on the temperature measured at Emergency Department admission, will be included in meta-analysis. Meta-analysis will be performed using a Mantel-Haenszel random-effects model. The estimated effect size for mortality will be reported as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for each study as well as for the overall cohort.