Contributions to nephrology
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Sepsis and multiple organ failure are common complications in intensive care unit (ICU) patients and are associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. ⋯ Although there is some evidence that mortality rates may have decreased in recent years, the incidence of sepsis is increasing so that overall deaths from this disease are increasing. Improved diagnostic techniques and classification may help target therapies more rapidly and more appropriately.
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From the recent past, hemofiltration, particularly high-volume hemofiltration, has rapidly evolved from a somewhat experimental treatment to a potentially effective 'adjunctive' therapy in severe septic shock and especially refractory or catecholamine-resistant hypodynamic septic shock. Nonetheless, this approach lacks prospective randomized studies (PRTs) evaluating the critical role of early hemofiltration in sepsis. An important milestone, which could be called the 'big bang' in terms of hemofiltration, was the publication of a PRT in patients with acute renal failure (ARF). ⋯ This could be called the big bang of hemofiltration as one could have never anticipated that an adequate dose of hemofiltration could markedly influence the survival rate of septic ARF patients in the ICU. Apart from the use of an early and adequate dose of Honoré/Joannes-Boyau/Gressens 372 hemofiltration in sepsis, a higher dose could also provide a better renal recovery rate and reduce the risk of associate chronic dialysis in these patients. Furthermore, this presentation will also review brand-new papers regarding the use of hemofiltration in systemic inflammatory response syndrome and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a major medical problem in critical illness, and has a separate independent effect on the risk of death. Septic shock and cardiac surgery utilizing cardiopulmonary bypass are the two most common factors contributing to AKI. Clinical predictors and biochemical markers identified for the development of AKI can only explain a part of this individual risk. ⋯ However, to date our knowledge on the importance of such genetic polymorphisms in influencing the susceptibility to and severity of AKI remains limited. There is evidence that several genetic polymorphisms accounting for sepsis- or cardiopulmonary bypass-associated AKI involve genes which participate in the control of inflammatory or vasomotor processes. In this article, we will review current knowledge concerning the role of genetic polymorphism in the pathogenesis of sepsis- and cardiopulmonary bypass-associated AKI and discuss possible areas for future developments and research in this field.
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Sepsis is one of the main causes of death in critically ill patients worldwide, and in many cases it is associated with renal and/or other organ failure. However, we do not have a unique efficient therapy to reduce this extremely high mortality rate. ⋯ Early experimental studies and the following clinical trials have demonstrated impressive results regarding hemodynamics and respiratory parameters, even in patients without concomitant acute renal injury, paralleled by a quick tapering of vasoactive drugs. Considering the still high morbidity and mortality rates in septic shock patients, this new blood purification technique seems to have benefits when applied early in the course of sepsis, also without renal indications, suggesting that it might be performed to prevent rather than to treat acute kidney injury.
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Severity scoring systems were first introduced to intensive care units (ICUs) in 1980. The basis for their development was the intention to provide information on the prognosis of patients, the efficacy of therapeutic interventions, stratification for clinical studies, workload and benchmarking of ICUs. Despite the appearance of several specialized scoring systems, the general mortality prediction systems such as APACHE, SAPS and MPM scores and their constantly improved successors have become the most popular and widely tested models. The newest development in this field is SAPS III which is the first 'global' model using a data set acquired from 307 ICUs from all over the world.