Objective: To evaluate the effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on muscle strength and duration of mechanical ventilation through cumulative Meta-analysis and sequential trial analysis (TSA).
Methods: Randomized controlled trial (RCT) of NMES intervention in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with mechanical ventilation were searched from PubMed database of US National Library of Medicine, EMbase database of Netherlands Medical Abstract, Web of Science, SinoMed database of China, CNKI, Wanfang data, VIP and other Chinese and English databases from database construction to July 15, 2021. The control group received ICU routine nursing or rehabilitation exercise; the experimental group received NMES (low frequency electric current through electrode stimulation to make muscle groups twitch or contract) based on routine care in ICU. Relevant data were screened, evaluated and extracted by two researchers independently. After extracting data, STATA 15.0 and TSA software were used to analyze the data and evaluate the research results.
Results: A total of 9 studies were enrolled, including 619 subjects. Among the 9 articles included, 2 were grade A and 7 were grade B, indicating good overall quality. Cumulative Meta-analysis showed that compared with ICU routine care, NMES improved muscle strength of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation [standardized mean difference (SMD) = 0.64, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.07 to 1.21] and shortened the duration of mechanical ventilation (SMD = -1.84, 95%CI was -2.58 to -1.10). TSA analysis of the two outcomes showed that the sample size of muscle strength outcome index (n = 518) and mechanical ventilation outcome index (n = 419) did not meet the expected information (RIS; n values of 618 and 685); the cumulative Z-value line of the muscle strength outcome index crossed the traditional boundary line and TSA boundary line, indicating that more tests were not needed to verify this result. In the outcome index of mechanical ventilation duration, it was found that the cumulative Z-value line only crossed the traditional boundary line, but did not cross the TSA boundary line, indicating that further studies in this area should be carried out in the future to demonstrate this result.
Conclusion: NMES can improve ICU patients' muscle strength and reduce the duration of mechanical ventilation.