July 18, 2018 – Sepsis Treatment

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Anchor lead: Can a three drug combination treat sepsis? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Sepsis, where an infection spreads throughout the bloodstream, is the third leading cause of death. Now two new studies are examining whether a combination of vitamin C, a B vitamin called thiamine, and steroids can budge dismal mortality statistics relative to sepsis. Richard Rothman, a professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins and a leader of one of the studies, explains.

Rothstein: There’s a lot of excitement about this new treatment because the results of this trial that was done suggest a very high impact. The excitement around that was based on a trial that was done about a year ago that showed upwards of about a 30% plus difference in mortality, so that’s very exciting for clinicians on the front lines in the emergency departments and the intensive care units in terms of a potential hopeful therapeutic but it has yet to be formally tested in a randomized controlled trial.   :32

Randomized, prospective trials are the gold standard of proof, and Rothman notes all involved would celebrate a positive result. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.