Among adults with severe sepsis not in septic shock, no reduction in septic shock with hydrocortisone
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The use of hydrocortisone does not reduce the risk of septic shock within 14 days among adults with severe sepsis not in septic shock, according to a study published online Oct. 3 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was published to coincide with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Annual Congress, held from Oct. 1 to 2 in Milan.
Didier Keh, M.D., from the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and colleagues randomized adult patients with severe sepsis who were not in septic shock to receive a continuous infusion of 200 mg hydrocortisone for five days followed by dose tapering until day 11, or to receive placebo (190 patients each).
The researchers found that within 14 days, septic shock occurred in 21.2 and 22.9 percent of patients in the hydrocortisone and placebo groups, respectively (difference, −1.8 percent; P = 0.70). There were no significant between-group differences in time until septic shock, mortality in the intensive care unit or hospital, or in mortality at 28 days (P = 0.86), 90 days (P = 0.44), and 180 days (P = 0.32).
“Among adults with severe sepsis not in septic shock, use of hydrocortisone compared with placebo did not reduce the risk of septic shock within 14 days,” the authors write. “These findings do not support the use of hydrocortisone in these patients.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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