Whether prone positioning of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation for COVID-19 pneumonia has benefits over supine positioning is not clear. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis to determine whether prone versus supine positioning during ventilation resulted in different outcomes for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

We searched Ovid Medline, Embase, and Web of Science for prospective and retrospective studies up through April 2023.

We included studies that compared outcomes of patients with COVID-19 after ventilation in prone and supine positions.

The primary outcomes were three mortality measures: hospital, overall, and intensive care unit (ICU).

Secondary outcomes were mechanical ventilation days, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and hospital length of stay.

We conducted risk of bias analysis and used meta-analysis software to analyze results.

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