Li Y, Guo J, Yang H, et al. - Via this systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers compared the clinical results of culture-negative and culture-positive sepsis or septic shock. They explored PubMed, Cochrane and Embase databases to identify relevant studies. They analyzed seven studies comprising 22,655 patients. Findings revealed that culture positivity or negativity was not related to mortality of sepsis or septic shock patients. ICU length of stay, mechanical ventilation needs and renal replacement needs in culture-positive septic patients were similar to those in culture-negative patients. Longer hospital length of stay as well as longer mechanical ventilation duration was noted in culture-positive septic patients when compared with that of the culture-negative patients.