Active clinical trials for "Shock, Septic"

Critically ill patients are prone to develop acute kidney injury due to sepsis itself and by administration of potentially nephrotoxic antibiotic treatment (vancomycin or gentamicin). Blood-specific miRNA levels associated with renal tubular damage change in patients treated with vancomycin or gentamicin compared to septic patients treated with other antimicrobials.

The objectives of this study are to determine whether Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) with oXiris in patients with septic shock would improve clinical outcomes such as the sepsis-related organ failure assessment (SOFA) , hemodynamic, mortality compared CRRT with conventional membrane.

Major microvascular blood flow alterations have been documented in patients with severe sepsis. It was also demonstrated that the microcirculation improved in survivors of septic shock but failed to do so in patients dying from acute circulatory failure or with multiple organ failure after shock resolution. Early, effective fluid resuscitation is a key component in the management of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock with the goal of improving tissue perfusion. The best fluid in this early resuscitation phase has been and still is under debate. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Three different Fluids(Albumin 5%, Normal Saline, HES 130 kD) on microcirculation in severe sepsis/septic shock patients using Sidestream Dark Field (SDF) Microscopy and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) analysis.

Patients with severe sepsis or septic shock suffer from life-threatening infections. Fast and adequate therapy with antibiotics is crucial for survival. Current guidelines recommend the application of broad-spectrum antibiotics within 1 hour after diagnosis. However, recent studies showed that such treatment is delayed for several hours. In this study, medical staff of participating hospitals is trained to achieve a duration until antimicrobial therapy of less than 1 hour. Tools of change management are used. The data are compared to a control group (hospitals without intervention). It is hypothesized that a multifaceted educational program decreases duration until antimicrobial therapy and improves survival.

Neutrophils are indispensable for host defense and have an important roles in modulating the immune system in both the innate and adaptive immune response. Neutrophils operate using a number of different mechanisms including chemotaxis, phagocytosis, release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and granular proteins, and the production and liberation of cytokines for this purpose. A controlled neutrophil response is required to combat infection; an dysregulated state of this response can cause sepsis, tissue damage, and organ failure. Sepsis and septic shock are the leading causes of death especially in intensive care units (ICU), and their mortality can be reduced with prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment modality. From this point of view, many biomarkers have been evaluated for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response of infection and sepsis. An objective marker of cellular dysfunction of neutrophils would be a helpful tool for the clinician in detecting and monitoring changes related to infection status and to determine development of sepsis and positive effects of interventions.

Systemic hyperinflammatory states, e.g. triggered by infection/sepsis, represent a major challenge for modern medicine. After an initially localized onset, inflammation can extend to an excessive, uncontrolled inflammatory reaction affecting the entire body and can trigger circulatory failure with subsequent irreversible multiple organ failure. Despite all the medical advances made in recent years, sepsis continues to be a substantial problem, as almost all therapeutic approaches have failed to prove their efficacy to date. Mortality in this clinical entity thus remains extremely high. In Germany alone, more than 100,000 people suffer from sepsis or septic shock every year, nearly half of whom die despite optimal therapy. Thus, sepsis is the third most common cause of death, has major importance both from a medical but also from an economical viewpoint, and approaches that could contribute to its successful treatment need to be further developed and explored. If a patient experiences the spread of bacteria or their constituents in the blood stream due to an uncontrolled source of infection, the result is a deliberately triggered physiological defense reaction of the body. In many patients, however, there is a pathological dysregulation of these mechanisms, in a way that the defense reaction goes far beyond the physiological level required, resulting in an excessive immune response of the body, which is mainly facilitated by inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and chemokines. The immune response spreads throughout the body and also dissipates into organs unaffected by the original infection. In cases of such unwanted overshooting immune responses, an attempt to regain control of the described deleterious systemic events seems reasonable by removing the excess amount of cytokines from the blood, thus preventing or treating organ failure. In this context, current therapeutic approaches increasingly focus on the elimination of inflammatory mediators. In recent years, hemoadsorption, using a new adsorber (CytoSorb), has been used to treat sepsis and other conditions of hyperinflammation. The advantage of this therapeutic principle is that a wide range of inflammatory mediators are removed. In conjunction with the enormous elimination capacity, the effective and rapid reduction of mediators can be achieved. To date, there have been more than 61,000 treatments using this procedure worldwide without device-related side effects being reported. The investigators have been treating patients with this procedure for over 5 years with consistently very favorable results. Therefore, the investigators would like to expand and deepen their observations with the proposed project.

This study evaluates the association between plasmatic levels of Mid Regional Proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) and the sublingual microcirculation in critical care patients admitted with infection, sepsis or septic shock.

This is a retrospective chart review that will measure the impact on outcomes in septic shock patients who were resuscitated with a novel combination of medicines called iHAT (intravenous hydrocortisone -ascorbic acid-thiamine). Septic shock patients treated with this combination of drugs over the past two years will be compared with similar, concurrent septic shock patients who were not treated with this drug given that adoption of this therapy has been variable.

The pathophysiology of sepsis is characterized by the sudden onset of vasodilation and vascular permeability with capillary leakage. This leakage contributes to the development of generalized edema which is not clinically detectable below 4 litres but which becomes visible after a few days. The edema accumulates mainly at the subcutaneous level due to the high compliance of this tissue. Edema, and therefore hydrosodium overload, testifies to the severity of the inflammation. However, it could also be harmful in itself (affecting microcirculation and increasing mortality) as suggested by numerous clinical and experimental studies. The transfer of fluids between vascular and interstitial compartments during sepsis therefore has a central role in the pathophysiology of the disease and associated mortality. These transfers are mainly controlled at the microvascular level (with constant permeability) by the difference between capillary (CP) and interstitial (IP) pressures. In healthy subjects, subcutaneous IP is discreetly negative (-1 mmHg) and varies very little. On the other hand, a sometimes drastic decrease in IP has been described in various localized and systemic inflammatory situations. These pressure variations may be explained by the collagen structure of the interstitial tissue and a change in the three-dimensional conformation of these macromolecules induced by inflammation mediators. In an animal model of sepsis, a study showed significantly lower pressure in a group of animals in endotoxic shock. IP has never been measured in humans during sepsis. The objective of this study is to analyze subcutaneous IP (SCIP) in patients with septic shock compared with controls in order to evaluate the direct role of interstitial tissue in the onset of edema during sepsis.

This is a monocentre randomized pilot study. All patients received two consecutive RRT: CVVHD with MCO filter (Ultraflux® EMiC®2) and post-Continuous Veno-Venous Hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) with HFF(AV1000S®) in a controlled randomized (1:1) blinded manner. Crossover randomized to sequence (A+B or B+A) for 48 h total without washout.