title: Clinical trials of immunomodulatory therapies in severe sepsis and septic shock.
abstract: Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of mortality in critically ill patients. Increased insight into the complexities of this disease process has resulted in the targeting of various aspects of the inflammatory response as offering potential therapeutic benefits. There have been encouraging results in the past few years. Some of the tested agents have been shown to improve mortality rates in large randomized controlled trials involving patients with severe sepsis. In this article, we discuss the positive and negative results of trials in this field; some of the possible reasons for the negative results are examined, and directions for the future are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Free University of Brussels, B-1070 Brussels, Belgium. jlvincen@resulb.ulb.ac.be
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Marc-Jacques
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Dubois
mesh_terms: D000992:Antitoxins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D007167:Immunotherapy; D018805:Sepsis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012772:Shock, Septic / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D000992:Antitoxins