All analyses were conducted according to a statistical analysis plan that was reported previously. The sample-size calculation was based on an assumed in-hospital rate of death in the usual-care group of 28%, with an increment of 10 percentage points (38%) for the rate of death at 90 days. Thus, an enrollment of 1600 patients would have a power of 85 to 90% (at a two-sided alpha level of 0.05) to detect an absolute risk reduction of 7.6 percentage points (or a relative risk
reduction of 20%) in the EGDT group, with allowance for a plausible range of loss to follow-up. One interim analysis was planned and performed after the enrollment of 50% of the patients, with the use of a two-sided, symmetric O’Brien–Fleming design and a two-sided P value of 0.005; this analysis was reviewed by the independent data and safety monitoring committee.