Early Hemofiltration Research Articles

Early hemofiltration as immunomodulation for septic shock in acute on chronic kidney disease: a case report

Bacterial endotoxins in sepsis induce dysregulation and excessive release of inflammatory mediators and cytokines, leading to organ dysfunction. Removing excess endotoxins and cytokines from the circulation could potentially reverse the dysregulation of the immune response. oXiris filter is capable of filtration and adsorption middle-size molecule cytokines and large molecular archives such as endotoxins. A man, 77 years old, weighing 70 kg, with 174 cm height and 23.17 BMI was diagnosed with septic shock with Fournier gangrene, acute on chronic kidney disease, uncontrolled blood sugar, and history of diabetes mellitus. He was put on meropenem antibiotic therapy. After necrotomies, increase in the levels of leukocytes, urea, creatinine, procalcitonin, D-dimer, NT-proBNP, and IL 6 was observed. Vasopressor dose was increased, and the patient also experienced tachycardia and fever. Meropenem was stopped and replaced with ceftaroline fosamil, and 24 h later hemofiltration with an oXiris filter was performed for 48 h. After hemofiltration, there was a decrease in vasopressor dose, urea, creatinine, and procalcitonin values. The patient′s hemodynamic status was stable without vasopressor, the dose of furosemide was decreased, and the urine output was increased. Then, the patient was transferred to the ward. The current patient had an upregulation of pro-inflammatory mediators as evidenced by clinical symptoms and laboratory findings. Additional treatment with extracorporeal blood purification techniques such as hemofiltration is required in these patients to facilitate the treatment of septic shock through the modulation of the immune response. Keywords: septic shock, dysregulation, hemofiltration, immunomodulation Citation: Elvia AS, Sedono R, George YWH. Early hemofiltration as immunomodulation for septic shock in acute on chronic kidney disease: a case report. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2024;28(1):182−186.DOI: 10.35975/apic.v28i1.2271 Received: August 17, 2023; Reviewed: December 23, 2023; Accepted: December 23, 2023

Effects of early hemofiltration on organ function and intra-abdominal pressure insevere acute pancreatitis patients with abdominal compartment syndrome .

To study the effects of early continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) on organ function and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) patients with abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). 48 SAP patients with ACS were included in this study. Among them, 37 patients, receiving both conventional treatment and hemofiltration therapy in the ICU, were regarded as the treatment group, and the rest, receiving only conventional treatment, were regarded as the control group. Symptoms, signs, and adverse reactions of both groups were observed and recorded during treatments. Serum and urine amylase, liver and kidney function, C-reactive protein, and intra-abdominal pressure of the patients were detected before and on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 after treatment. 1. Symptoms and signs in the treatment group disappeared quickly, and their hospitalization time was significantly shorter than those of control group (p < 0.05). 2. After treatment, on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, patients' serum and urine amylase levels, C-reactive protein, and intra-abdominal pressure were significantly lower, and liver and kidney function was significantly better than those of the control group (p < 0.05). Early hemofiltration in SAP with ACS can effectively reduce intra-abdominal pressure, improve symptoms, accelerate liver and renal function recovery, avoid multiple organ failure and decrease mortality rate.

Acute liver failure and the brain: a look through the crystal ball

Over the past 35years, the outlook for a patient presenting with acute liver failure (ALF) has changed beyond all recognition. A patient presenting in 1984 had an 80% likelihood of succumbing to intracranial hypertension. Today due to dramatic improvements in intensive care in dedicated liver transplant units, this has been reduced to just 20%. Prompt fluid resuscitation, empirical treatment for sepsis and standardised management protocols that include early intubation and high flow hemofiltration for ammonia removal, limit the numbers of patients who die from the sequelae of cerebral edema and ALF. With the evolution and development of bedside prognostic markers that will include personalised genomic, metabonomic and immune profiling, rationalisation of grafts to those who are not predicted to survive is likely to further minimise the number of grafts utilised. Furthermore, in those patients with a dismal prognosis, the use of plasmapheresis, immunomodulatory therapies, biological liver support systems and hepatocyte transplantation offer a potential bridge until the injured liver can begin to regenerate avoiding transplantation and life-long immunosuppressant therapy.

Propofol Infusion Syndrome During Refractory Status Epilepticus in a Young Adult: Successful ECMO Resuscitation

Propofol infusion syndrome (PRIS) is a rare but serious complication of propofol administration consisting of metabolic disorder with acidosis, often leading to fatal cardiovascular collapse. A case of PRIS is described in a 17-year-old female with refractory status epilepticus (RSE) who was receiving high-dose propofol for seizure control and sedation. Metabolic syndrome was observed with renal failure, severe metabolic acidosis, and rhabdomyolysis after 58 h of propofol infusion at a maximum dose of 8.8 mg/kg/h. It was not initially associated with circulatory failure. Propofol was stopped immediately, and brief bradycardia was observed. The patient was started on continuous hemofiltration resulting in correction of the metabolic disorder. However, cardiocirculatory failure occurred a few hours later. Her clinical evolution and biological assessments were typical of PRIS. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) was initiated despite the presence of cardiocirculatory arrest. Cardiocirculatory function improved rapidly, and the patient was weaned off ECMO after 5 days. No severe neurologic effects were observed, and she left the intensive care unit after 36 days, returning home after 2 months. Careful consideration should be given before prescribing propofol as first-line therapy for RSE, and this drug should be avoided altogether if high doses are required. Close biochemical monitoring is needed if propofol is used for more than a few hours, so that PRIS can be recognized promptly. Immediate discontinuation of propofol is essential, and early hemofiltration should be initiated. ECMO should be considered in cases of cardiocirculatory failure.

Acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery: impact of early versus late haemofiltration on morbidity and mortality

Various forms of renal replacement therapies (RRT) are available to treat acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery. The objective of this review is to assess the incidence of postoperative AKI that necessitates the application of haemofiltration in adult patients undergoing cardiac operations with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), to determine the factors that influence the outcome in these patients. In addition, the review aims to assess the outcomes of postoperative early haemofiltration as compared to late intensive haemofiltration. Different forms of RRT such as intermittent haemodialysis, continuous haemofiltration, or hybrid forms which combine advantages of both are now available for application in cardiac surgery patients, and will be discussed in this article. The underlying disease, its severity and stage, the aetiology of AKI, clinical and haemodynamic status of the patient, the resources available, and different costs of therapy may all influence the choice of the RRT strategy. AKI, with its risk of uraemic complications, represents an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes in critically ill patients after cardiac surgery. Whether early initiation of RRT is associated with improved survival is unknown, and also clear guidelines on RRT durations are still lacking. In particular, it remains unclear whether haemodynamically unstable patients who develop septic shock pre- and postoperatively can benefit from early RRT initiation. In addition, it is not known whether in AKI patients undergoing cardiac surgery RRT modalities can eliminate significant amounts of clinically relevant inflammatory mediators. This review gives an update of information available in the literature on possible mechanisms underlying AKI and the recent developments in continuous renal replacement treatment modalities.

Antithrombin level and circuit thrombosis during hemofiltration after cardiopulmonary bypass

Hemofilter thrombosis occurs frequently during continuous veno-venous hemofiltration in intensive care units. Among coagulation disorders, antithrombin deficiency has been shown to be linked to hemofilter thrombosis. We investigated whether there was an association between antithrombin level activity and hemofilter thrombosis occurrence during early continuous hemofiltration following cardiopulmonary bypass. Prospective observational study. Intensive care unit in University Teaching Hospital. Forty-eight consecutive patients. Antithrombin level activity was measured just before the start of hemofiltration, and repeated at 24 h intervals for a total of 3 days. Hemofilter thrombosis episodes were recorded at each 24-h interval following antithrombin level activity measurement. Subjects were classified as HT when one or more episodes of hemofilter thrombosis appeared in this period and NHT if none. Morbidity parameters and mortality were recorded. Mean initial antithrombin level activity was low and not different in HT and NHT groups at day 0 (60.6 +/- 20.9% vs. 63.4 +/- 19.9%, P = 0.68). Antithrombin level activity was lower at day 1 (47.2 +/- 12.0% vs. 58.2 +/- 15.2%, P = 0.03) and day 2 (41.2 +/- 15.3% vs. 53.5 +/- 14.1%, P = 0.04) in HT group. However, antithrombin level activity was not shown to be predictive of HT in multivariate analysis. Morbidity and mortality did not differ significantly between the two groups. Only a weak association was found between antithrombin level activity and HT during early veno-venous hemofiltration post-cardiopulmonary bypass. This result was not confirmed in multivariate analysis. Renal failure: dialysis and hemofiltration.

The Big Bang of Hemofiltration: The Beginning of a New Era in the Third Millennium for Extra-Corporeal Blood Purification!

Since the last decade, hemofiltration and especially high volume hemofiltration has rapidly evolved from a somewhat experimental treatment towards a potentially effective 'adjunctive' therapy in severe septic shock and especially refractory or catecholamine resistant hypodynamic septic shock. Nevertheless, this approach lacks prospective randomized studies (PRT'S) evaluating the critical role of early hemofiltration in sepsis. An important step forward which could be called the 'big bang' in term of hemofiltration was the publication of a PRT in patients with acute renal failure (ARF) (1). Before this study (2), nobody believed that hemofiltration could change the survival rate in intensive care. Since that big bang, many physicians consider that hemofiltration at a certain dose can change the survival rate in intensive care. So the world of hemofiltration in ICU is not a definitive world, it is still in expansion. Indeed, we now have to try to define what will be the exact dose we need in septic acute renal failure. This dose might well be 'higher' than 35 ml/kg/hour in the septic acute renal failure 'group' as suggested by many studies (2-5). At present, it is the issue of continuous dose of high volume hemofiltration that has to be tested in future randomized studies. Since the Vicenza study (2) has shown that 35 ml/kg/h is the best dose in terms of survival, dealing with non septic acute renal failure in ICU, several studies from different groups have shown that, in septic acute renal failure, a higher dose might correlate with better survival. This has also been shown in some way by the study of the 'Vicenza group' but not with a statistically significant value (2). New PRT'S have just started in Europe like the IVOIRE study (hIgh VOlume in Intensive caRE) (6) and the RENAL study. Another large study is looking more basically at dose in non septic acute renal failure in Australasia and is led by the group of Rinaldo Bellomo in Melbourne (7) as well as the ATN study (8) led by Palevsky and colleagues in the USA, also testing the importance of dose in the treatment for ARF. Nevertheless, 'early goal-directed hemofiltration therapy' like early goal directed therapy (9) has to be studied in our critical ill patients. Regarding this issue, fewer studies, mainly retrospective exist, but again the IVOIRE study (6) will address this issue by studying septic patients with acute renal injury according to the Rifle classification (10). So, this review focuses on the early application and on the adequate dose of continuous high volume hemofiltration in septic shock in order to improve not only hemodynamics, but survival in this very severely ill cohort of patients. This could well be called the 'big bang of hemofiltration' as one could never have anticipated that an adequate dose of hemofiltration could markedly influence the survival rate of ICU-septic acute renal failure patients. On top of the use of early and adequate dose of hemofiltration in sepsis, a higher dose could also provide better renal recovery rate and reduce the risk of associate chronic dialysis in these patients. Furthermore, this paper also reviews 'brand' new theories regarding the rationale for hemofiltration in sepsis. Finally, this paper also addresses the so-called negative studies as well anticipated side effects.

Early isovolemic hemofiltration in oliguric patients with septic shock

Early isovolemic hemofiltration in oliguric patients with septic shock

Early hemofiltration improves survival in post-cardiotomy patients with acute renal failure

The application and timing of hemofiltration (continuous veno-venous hemofiltration, CVVH) in patients with acute renal failure (ARF) post cardiac surgery has been called into question because of uncertain short-term outcome. The aim of the present study was to identify how the timing of introduction of hemofiltration affects the morbidity and mortality in patients with ARF after cardiac surgery. 1264 consecutive patients who underwent adult cardiac surgical procedures performed between January 2002 and January 2003 were audited. Out of these, case notes of 64 patients who required renal supportive intervention were reviewed. Statistical significance was accepted at a level of P<0.05. Of the 64 (5%) patients, who developed ARF and required CVVH, there were 48 males and 16 females. Mean age was 70+/-6.8 years. The hospital mortality was 43% (12 patients) in Group-I and 22% (8) in Group-II (P<0.05), giving an overall 1.5% mortality associated with ARF. The mean time between the operation and the initiation of CVVH was 2.55+/-2.2 days in Group-I and 0.78+/-0.2 days in Group-II (P<0.001). The mean duration of CVVH was 4.57+/-11.4 days in Group-I and 4.61+/-2.0 days in Group-II (P=NS). Older age (P=0.013), elevated preoperative creatinine (P=0.002), postoperative pulmonary oedema (P=0.01), sepsis (P=0.001), multiple organ failure (P=0.031), hypotension (P=0.031) and preoperative renal failure (P<0.05) were the independent factors influencing the poor postoperative outcome and cardiac instability. Early and aggressive use of CVVH is associated with better than expected survival in severe ARF after cardiac operations.

Effect of early hemofiltration on pro- and anti-inflammatory responses and multiple organ failure in severe acute pancreatitis.

The effects of early hemofiltration on the serum levels of cytokines, pro- and anti-inflammatory balance and organ function in pigs with severe acute pancreatits (SAP) were studied. SAP pig model was induced by retrograde injection of artificial bile into the pancreatic duct. The pigs were randomly divided into SAP hemofiltration treatment group (HF group, n=8) and SAP non-hemofiltration treatment group (NHF group, n=8). In the HF group, the animals were subjected to high-volume and zero-balance hemofiltration therapy. The results showed that as compared with NHF group, MAP, CVP and PaO2/FiO2 were significantly increased (P<0.01), while HR, urinary protein content, serum ALT level, pulmonary coefficient and lung wet/dry ratio obviously decreased (P<0.05) in HF group. Under a light microscope, the pulmonary histologic scoring was lower that in HF group (P<0.01) and the lesions of renal and liver tissues were milder. However, there was no significant difference in the pancreatic histologic scoring between the two groups. Six h after establishment of the model, the serum levels of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta were lower, while the IL-10/ TNF-alpha ratio was higher in HF group (all P<0.05). It was suggested that early hemofiltration could effectively remove the serum cytokines TNF-alpha and IL-1beta in SAP pigs, elevate the ratio of IL-10/TNF-alpha, improve hemodynamics and alleviate the lesions of lung, kidney and liver tissues.

Continuous Veno-Venous Hemofiltration May Improve Survival From Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome After Bone Marrow Transplantation or Chemotherapy

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) may result from immunologic activity triggered by irradiation and/or chemotherapy. Hemofiltration removes plasma water and soluble components below 25 kilodaltons. The authors hypothesized that early hemofiltration might attenuate the inflammatory component of ARDS, resulting in increased survival in immunocompromised children and young adults. Ten children (6 bone marrow transplantation, 3 chemotherapy, 1 lymphoma/hemophagocytosis) with ARDS (Pao2/Fio2 94 +/- 37 torr) received early continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration as adjunctive therapy for respiratory failure, regardless of renal function. Six children had normal urine output and initial serum creatinine (range 0.1-1.2 mg/dL); four had renal insufficiency (initial creatinine 1.7-2.4 mg/dL). Hemofiltration was instituted coincident with intubation. Respiratory failure was precipitated by Enterobacter sepsis in two patients and by Aspergillus in one. Hemodiafiltration was performed for 13 +/- 9 days. A high rate of clearance was achieved (52 +/- 17 mL/min/1.73 m2). Duration of mechanical ventilation was 14 +/- 9 days. Nine of the 10 children were successfully extubated; 8 survived. Early hemofiltration may improve survival from ARDS following bone marrow transplantation or chemotherapy. Possible mechanisms include strict fluid balance, immunomodulation through filtration of inflammatory constituents, and immunomodulation through intensive extracellular water exchange that delivers biochemicals to organs of metabolism as well as the hemofilter.

Early but not delayed continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration improves cardiovascular function in sepsis in dogs.

Continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration (CAVH) has been advocated as treatment to remove inflammatory mediators and thereby to improve hemodynamic parameters in sepsis. However, the results obtained with CAVH have been inconsistent. In a canine model of bacteremic Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia, we tested the hypothesis that the time course of the institution of CAVH may be important in obtaining a beneficial treatment effect. Two protocols were performed in phenobarbital-anesthetized dogs. In the early hemofiltration study (EHS), CAVH for 3 h was initiated 2 h post-pneumonia before mean arterial pressure (MAP) fell. In the late hemofiltration study (LHS), CAVH for 3 h was initiated at 5 h post-pneumonia when a decrease in MAP had already occurred. Hemodynamic measurements included cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), and stroke work (SW). Myocardial depressant activity [filterable cardiodepressant substance (FCS)] found in plasma was assessed by bioassay at each measurement interval. In EHS, after 5 h of sepsis, SW, CO, and SV in the hemofiltered pneumonia group were higher as compared with the nonhemofiltered pneumonia group. In contrast, in LHS, no differences in hemodynamic parameters were found between the two pneumonia groups. In both EHS and LHS, plasma FCS activity was decreased to similar extents by CAVH. These results suggest the time course of institution of CAVH may be important in obtaining a beneficial treatment effect in sepsis.