Table 1.

‘PICOS’ approach for selecting clinical studies in the systematic search. PICOS Patient, Population, or Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Study Design or Setting

PICOS	Study characteristics
1. Participants	Patients with sepsis and/or septic shock
2. Intervention	Premorbid exposure to beta blockers
3. Comparison	No premorbid exposure to beta blockers
4. Outcomes	Mortality
5. Study design	Prospective observational or retrospective cohort studies