Description

Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to an infection; in septic shock profound circulatory, cellular and metabolic abnormalities are associated with an even higher mortality. Sepsis is a major healthcare problem, affecting millions of individuals around the world each year. Its incidence appears to be rising, and the mortality caused by septic shock in Germany in 2015 remains extraordinarily high (58.8%). It is well known - from the pathophysiological point of view - that these patients do not die from their infection per se but rather from multiple organ failure caused by their own overwhelming host response. This fact is so fundamental that it has been implemented as a key part of the 2016 sepsis definition (SEPSIS-3). Despite tremendous efforts during the last decades, innovative approaches targeting this fundamental hallmark of the disease, thereby reducing organ dysfunction, are lacking. Undoubtedly, there is an unmet need to expand the current standard of care for these patients by a more specific intervention.

The investigators hypothesize that early Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) in the most severely ill individuals will dampen the injurious maladaptive host response by removing injurious mediators thereby limiting organ dysfunction. The potential impact of this trial is of immense clinical relevance as it evaluates a promising adjunctive treatment option for a patient cohort suffering from an extraordinary high mortality. A positive trial result could truly change the current standard of care (SOC) - that is mostly supportive - of septic shock patients. Of note, there is neither a patent nor a direct commercial interest in such a trial.