Genetic association studies in critically ill patients: protocol for a systematic review

Introduction: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are highly heterogeneous in characteristics, their clinical course, and outcomes. Genetic variability may partly explain the variability and similarity in disease courses observed among critically ill patients and may identify clusters of subgroups. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review of all genetic association studies of critically ill patients with their outcomes.

Methods and analysis: This systematic review will be conducted and reported according to the HuGE Review Handbook V1.0. We will search PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for relevant studies. All types of genetic association studies that included acutely admitted medical and surgical adult ICU patients will be considered for this review. All studies will be selected according to predefined selection criteria, evaluated and assessed for risk of bias independently by two reviewers. Risk of bias will be assessed according to the HuGE Review Handbook V1.0 with some modifications reflecting recent insights. We will provide an overview of all included studies by reporting the characteristics of the study designs, the patients included in the studies, the genetic variables, and the outcomes evaluated.

Ethics and dissemination: We will use data from peer-reviewed published articles, and hence, there is no requirement for ethics approval. The results of this systematic review will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42021209744.