Trying to identify who may benefit most from future vitamin D intervention trials: a post hoc analysis from the VITDAL-ICU study excluding the early deaths.
Crit Care. 2019 Jun 4;23(1):200. doi: 10.1186/s13054-019-2472-z.
Martucci G1, McNally D2, Parekh D3, Zajic P4, Tuzzolino F5, Arcadipane A1, Christopher KB6, Dobnig H7, Amrein K8,9.
- Overview Loading of vitamin D
- 10 fewer days of ICU Mechanical Ventilation 300,000 IU injection of vitamin D – RCT March 2019
Items in both categories Trauma-Surgery and Loading Dose are listed here:
- Surgery complications cut in half by 300,000 IU of vitamin D 2 weeks before (hip and knee) – RCT May 2024
- Some ICU patients got 540,000 IU of Vitamin D: good responders lived longer than controls or poor responders – RCT June 2024
- Large dose Vitamin D before surgery was found to help by 35 studies
- Vitamin D is needed before many surgeries – many studies and RCTs
- Half as much AFIB after bypass if 600,000 IU of vitamin D before surgery – RCT April 2022
- ICU mortality reduced by non-oral vitamin D – meta-analysis May 2021
- Taking Vitamin D just before and after surgery helps (open-heart in this case) – RCT Feb 2021
- Half as many problems if take Vitamin D (300,000 IU) before thyroidectomy – RCT Jan 2021
- Fewer days in hospital if 300,000 IU of vitamin D before brain surgery - RCT Feb 2021
- ICU Vitamin D injection (300,000 IU) helped - RCT Feb 2021
- Those getting an injection of 300,000 IU Vitamin D got out of the ICU a week sooner – RCT Dec 2020
- ICU patients greatly helped by Vitamin D loading doses – if gut-friendly – Oct 2020
- Fewer days in ICU after 300,000 IU of vitamin D, but not 540,000 – meta-analysis Aug 2020
- 3X less Septic Shock in children with sepsis getting 150,000 IU of Vitamin D - RCT June 2020
- 100,000 IU daily of Vitamin D for 5 days increased Hemoglobin in Mechanically Ventilated adults – RCT Jan 2018
- Traumatic Brain Injury – 120,000 IU of Vitamin D resulted in 3 fewer days on ventilators – RCT March 2020
- Hip surgery with multiple doses of 50,000 IU of vitamin D weekly both before and after – RCT 2023
- Use of Vitamin D in a trauma surgery - Dr. Matthews on Facebook – Jan 2020
- Surgeries often deplete Vitamin D - 300,000 IU resulted in little response – Nov 2018
- 10 fewer days of ICU Mechanical Ventilation 300,000 IU injection of vitamin D – RCT March 2019
- Intensive Care (ICU) helped by Vitamin D – review of past and on-going studies – Dec 2018
- ICU adults getting 540,000 IU of Vitamin D were 2X more likely to be alive 30 days later – RCT June 2019
- Traumatic Brain Injury recovery helped by injection of 100,000 IU of Vitamin D – March 2019
- Rapidly restore Vitamin D levels with 10,000 IU per kg for children in ICU – RCT 2024
- Esophageal Cancer surgery helped by 300,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Sept 2018
- Severe sepsis may be prevented by 400,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT 2023
- Critically ill children – randomized clinical trial to give single doses of up to 400,000 IU of vitamin D – 2019
- Vitamin D loading doses reduce ICU mortality by 30 percent – meta-analysis April 2017
- Hospital ICU added high dose vitamin D - malpractice lawsuit costs dropped from 26 million dollars to ZERO - Oct 2016
- Children in Intensive Care need Vitamin D loading dose of 10000 IU per kg (nearing a consensus) - Oct 2016
- Vitamin D Loading dose - 20,000 IU daily is not enough if obese, etc. (Cancer) great table and chart – Oct 2016
- Rapid Normalization of Vitamin D in Critically Ill Children (10,000 IU per kg) – clinical trial
- VITdAL-ICU - AMA RCT Sept 2014
- Critically ill need vitamin D – how much and which test to use is TBD – Nov 2014
- ICU survival increased with vitamin D single 540K IU loading dose - JAMA Sept 2014
- 540000 IU before ICU raised vitamin D by 25 ng in 2 days – March 2011
- Hip surgery followed by 100000 IU then 1000 IU of vitamin D daily – June 2010
- 600,000 IU intramuscular D3 helped BMD after pancreatic surgery – June 2010
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
BACKGROUND:
Vitamin D supplementation has shown promise for reducing mortality in the intensive care setting. As a steroid prohormone with pleiotropic effects, there may be a lag between administration and observing clinical benefit. This secondary analysis of the VITdAL-ICU study sought to explore whether the effect size of vitamin D on mortality was different when study participants who died or were discharged early were excluded.
METHODS:
The VITdAL-ICU study was a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in critically ill adults who received placebo or 540,000 IU cholecalciferol followed by monthly supplementation. The effect of vitamin D on 28-day mortality was evaluated after exclusion of participants who died or were discharged within 7 days from study drug administration, according to vitamin D concentrations on day 3, using a bivariate analysis adjusted for confounders and in a stepwise multiple analysis.
RESULTS:
Of 475 study participants, 65 died or were discharged within the first 7 days. In the remaining 410 patients, vitamin D supplementation was associated with a reduction in 28-day mortality [OR 0.58 (95% CI 0.35-0.97) p value = 0.035]. The effect on mortality was not significant after adjusting for age, severity scores, female gender, chronic liver and kidney disease, COPD, diagnosis of the tumor, mechanical ventilation, and vasopressors at enrollment (all p > 0.05). In a multiple model, the mortality reduction by vitamin D supplementation did not remain independently significant [OR 0.61 (95% CI 0.35-1.05) p = 0.075]. Vitamin D metabolite response, in the treatment group, demonstrated that survivors at 28 days, had higher levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (34.4 vs 25.4 ng/ml, p = 0.010) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (107.6 vs 70.3 pg/ml, p = 0.049) on day 3. The increase of plasma metabolites after vitamin D oral supplementation, independent of the baseline value, was associated with lower odds of death [OR 0.48 (95% CI 0.27-0.87) p value = 0.016].
CONCLUSIONS:
High-dose vitamin D3 supplementation was associated with a reduction of 28-day mortality in a mixed population of critically ill adults with vitamin D deficiency when excluding patients who died or were discharged within 7 days after study inclusion. However, this survival benefit was not independently confirmed when adjusted for other factors strongly associated with mortality.