Fig. 4

Ninety-day mortality after ICU admission in the early and late administration groups. Time-to-event curve for death at 90 days after ICU admission is shown. The hazard ratio is from unadjusted and adjusted analyses by Cox proportional hazard model. In the adjusted model, we used predefined adjusters as age (≥ 65 years old), chronic illness (Charlson comorbidity index ≥ 3), disability (performance status ≥ 3), illness severity (acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score ≥ 21), source of infection (urinary tract/abdomen or not), emergent surgery (yes/no), serum lactate concentration (≥ 4 mmol/L), vasoactive-inotropic score (≥ 30), and bacteremia (yes/no)