SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Intensive Care Medicine and Anesthesiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1485474
The efficacy and safety of androgen analog oxandrolone in improving clinical outcomes in burn patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Burn Department, Ningbo No.2 Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
- 2Section of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- 3Department of Health Science Center, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
- 4School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- 5Ningbo Second Hospital, Ningbo, China
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Background: This latest systematic review and meta-analysis aim to examine efficacy and safety of androgen analog oxandrolone in burn patients. Relevant articles were retrieved from Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane, Web of science, and other databases. The output measures were the weight loss in catabolic phase, weight gain in recovery phase, lean body mass in recovery phas, operation times, healing time of donor area, length of hospital stay/total body surface area burned (LOS/TBSA%), length of hospital stay (LOS), side effects, infection and mortality. Data were pooled and expressed as relative risk (RR) and standardized mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). 19 studies were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis, with 779 patients who received oxandrolone (treatment group) and 1227 patients who received standard care or placebo (control group). The pooled data from all included studies demonstrated that the treatment group has significantly reduced weight loss in catabolic phase (SMD = 1.86; 95% CI: -0.13 -3.84; p < 0.001, I 2 = 95.0%), operation times (SMD = -0.69; 95% CI: -1.84 -0.46, p < 0.001, I 2 = 96.8%), LOS/TBSA% (SMD = -1.07; 95% CI: -2.43 -0.29, p < 0.001, I 2 = 98.1%), LOS (SMD = -0.55; 95% CI: -1.32 -0.22, p < 0.001, I 2 = 97.3%), mortality (RR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.47-2.32, p = 0.013, I 2 = 65.5%) and increased weight gain (SMD = 0.58; 95% CI: -1.21 -2.38, p < 0.001, I 2 = 95.1%), as well as lean body mass in recovery phase (SMD = 1.30; 95% CI: -0.47 -3.24, p < 0.001, I 2 = 95.0%). Our meta-analysis showed that oxandrolone supplements are beneficial for burn patients as they significantly reduce the weight loss in catabolic phase, operation times, LOS/TBSA%, LOS, mortality and increase weight gain and lean body mass in recovery phase.
Keywords: burn patients, Androgen analog, Oxandrolone, Meta-analysis, Mortality
Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lou, Xiang, Zhu, Fan, Song, Huang, Jin and Cui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shengyong Cui, Ningbo Second Hospital, Ningbo, China
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