The mortality rate of patients with sepsis has been increasing in recent years. Alterations of biomarkers levels during treatment are important in evaluating treatment efficacy and predicting outcomes in sepsis. This meta-analysis investigated the relationship between changes in cytokine levels after treatment compared with those on hospital admission, and their relationship with the prognosis of patients with sepsis.

From conception until August 4, 2021, a complete literature search of the PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library electronic databases was done. Observational studies where the outcomes of sepsis patients were divided into non-survivors and survivors and which reported cytokine levels at least before treatment in ICU were included in the current study. Standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) values from individual studies were pooled using a random-effects model. Quality assessment, subgroup analysis, publication bias, and sensitivity analyses were all carried out.

A total of 2570 patients with sepsis from 25 eligible studies were included, and 14 of them measured the cytokine levels before and after treatment in ICU. Among IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-10 levels, those of IL-6 were significantly lower after treatment in ICU than at baseline in patients with sepsis in the survival group (SMD = −0.69, P < 0.0001), but were comparable in the non-survival group (SMD = −0.99, P = 0.0575). Similarly, post-treatment TNF-α levels were significantly lower than those at baseline only in patients with sepsis in the survival group (SMD = −0.44, P < 0.0001), but not in the non-survival group (SMD =−0.17, P = 0.0842).

This meta-analysis shows that reduced IL-6 and TNF-α levels after sepsis treatment in ICU may be indicators of better prognosis and survival of patients with sepsis.