Comparison of 6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4 vs 5% albumin in cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery

Table 2 Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation assessment of the clinical outcomes

Outcome	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Publication bias	Overall certainty of evidence
Postoperative platelet count (109/L, 24 h postop)	Serious	Serious1 (I2 = 49%, P = 0.08)	Not serious	Not serious (CI narrow, does not cross MID)	Undetected	Moderate
Postoperative creatinine (mg/dL, 24 h postop)	Serious	Not serious (I2 = 0%, P = 0.53)	Not serious	Not serious (CI narrow)	Undetected	High
ICU days	Serious	Not serious (I2 = 0%, P = 0.96)	Not serious	Serious (CI wide)	Undetected	Moderate
Hospital days	Serious	Serious (I2 = 61%, P = 0.05)	Not serious	Serious (CI wide)	Undetected	Low
Patients receiving pRBC transfusion	Serious	Serious (I2 = 65%, P = 0.01)	Not serious	Not serious (CI does not cross 25% relative risk)	Undetected	High
Acute kidney injury	Serious	Not serious (I2 = 38%, P = 0.20)	Not serious	Serious (CI wide, few events)	Undetected	High
Mortality	Serious	Not serious (I2 = 0%, P = 0.80)	Not serious	Very serious (very wide CI, very few events)	Undetected	High
Postoperative blood loss (mL)	Serious	Very serious (I2 = 81%, P = 0.00)	Not serious	Not serious (CI narrow)	Undetected	Moderate

CI: Confidence interval; MID: Minimum important difference; ICU: Intensive care unit; pRBC: Packed red blood cell.