A Cochrane review included 6 studies with a total of 2 018 subjects. All studies met the definitions of community-acquired pneumonia and confirmed hospital-acquired pneumonia where indicated. Patients in two studies included patients with severe sepsis. The use of G-CSF was not associated with improved 28-day mortality (pooled OR 0.81; 95% CI: 0.52 to 1.27). G-CSF use appeared to be safe with no increase in the incidence of total serious adverse events (pooled OR 0.91; 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.14) or organ dysfunction.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (heterogeneity present between the study populations).