epoetin-alfa and Shock--Septic

Many advances have improved the care of critically ill patients, but only a few have been through the use of pharmaceutical agents. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drotrecogin alfa (activated), or recombinant human activated protein C, for the treatment of patients with a high risk of death from severe sepsis. Drotrecogin alfa (activated) has antiinflammatory, antithrombotic and fibrinolytic properties. When given as a continuous intravenous infusion, recombinant human activated protein C decreases absolute mortality of severely septic patients by 6.1%, resulting in a 19.4% relative reduction in mortality. The absolute reduction in mortality increases to 13% if the population treated is restricted to patients with an APACHE II score greater than 24, as suggested by the FDA. The most frequent and serious side effect is bleeding. Severe bleeds increased from 2% in patients given placebo to 3.5% in patients receiving drotrecogin alfa (activated). The risk of bleeding was only increased during the actual infusion time of the drug, and the bleeding risk returned to placebo levels 24 hours after the infusion was discontinued. Patients treated in the intensive care unit frequently develop anemia, usually severe enough to require at least one transfusion of red blood cells. With the recent discovery of the harmful effects of allogeneic red blood cell transfusions and the increasing shortage of available red blood cell products, emphasis has been placed on minimizing transfusions. Patients who receive exogenous recombinant human erythropoietin maintain higher hemoglobin levels, in spite of requiring fewer transfusions during their stay in the intensive care unit. Recombinant human erythropoietin appears to be effective whether it is given as 300 units/kg of body weight subcutaneously every other day or as 40,000 units subcutaneously every week. Differences in hemoglobin values were not apparent until at least one week of therapy, but they continued to diverge after that initial week. Furthermore, the incidence of adverse events was similar to that of patients receiving placebo and there was no difference in mortality, suggesting that avoidance of blood transfusions did not translate into increased survival. Thus, recombinant human erythropoietin appears to be both safe and effective in treating the anemia found in critically ill patients, but it is less clear that such treatment is cost effective, especially in the higher dose regimens

Topics: Critical Care; Critical Illness; Epoetin Alfa; Erythropoietin; Humans; Protein C; Recombinant Proteins; Shock, Septic; Vasopressins