Substitutive therapies in sepsis and acute renale failure

: Substitutive treatment of sepsis associated acute renal failure is an emergent challenge in the intensive care unit due to the number of cases and to the high mortality rate. Standard hemofiltration is unable to improve survival, since a high mortality rate is sustained by the septic process. New therapeutic approaches currently available are based on the increased clearance of molecules ranging 10-30 kDa considered important in the physiopathology of sepsis and multiorgan failure. Clinical experiences in progress are: (1) adsorption resins able to bind bacterial products, cytokines, anaphylotoxins and several inflammation mediators; (2) the bioartificial kidney, that is the addition to hemofilter of human tubular cell culture grown in devices in order to mimic metabolic tubular function to a traditional hemofilter; (3) increased exchange volumes (high volume hemofiltration), up to 0-100 L/24 hr and; (4) increased membrane permeability associated with either discarded ultrafiltrate (high cut-off membranes) or plasma substitution plasmapheresis with regeneration by sorbents technology (C FA). Generally, by applying these new technologies to septic shock patients, the observed survival was higher than that predicted by the gravity score. While these results are encouraging, they are not conclusive and need further study.