• Feihu Zhou, Zhiyong Peng, Raghavan Murugan, and John A Kellum.
• Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Clinical Research, Investigation, and Systems Modeling of Acute illness (CRISMA) Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
• Crit. Care Med.. 2013 Sep 1;41(9):2209-20.

ObjectivesAlthough blood purification improves outcomes in animal studies of sepsis, results of clinical trials have been mixed. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials to determine the association between various blood purification techniques and all-cause mortality in humans with sepsis.Data SourcesWe searched for relevant studies in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library database from January 1966 to May 2012.Study SelectionInclusion required a diagnosis of sepsis and comparison of blood purification techniques including hemofiltration, hemoperfusion, plasma exchange, or hemodialysis with no blood purification (control group).Data ExtractionTwo authors independently selected studies and extracted data. Summary statistics, risk ratios, and CIs were calculated using random-effects modeling. Study quality was assessed using Jadad score, and publication bias was assessed using funnel plots and Egger's statistic.Data SynthesisOverall, blood purification decreased mortality compared with no blood purification (35.7% vs 50.1%; risk ratio, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.56-0.84]; p<0.001; 16 trials, n=827). However, these results were driven mainly by hemoperfusion (risk ratio, 0.63 [95% CI, 0.50-0.80]; p<0.001; 10 trials, n=557) and plasma exchange (risk ratio, 0.63 [95% CI, 0.42-0.96]; p=0.03; two trials, n=128). Pooling of all trials of blood purification for treatment of sepsis was no longer associated with lower mortality (risk ratio, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.71-1.13]; p=0.36; eight trials, n=457) after excluding trials using polymyxin B hemoperfusion.ConclusionsBlood purification techniques including hemoperfusion, plasma exchange, and hemofiltration with hemoperfusion were associated with lower mortality in patients with sepsis. These results were mainly influenced by studies using polymyxin B hemoperfusion from Japan.

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