Intravenous Vitamin C as an Add-on Therapy for the Treatment of Sepsis in an Intensive Care Unit: A Prospective Cohort Study.
Medicina (Kaunas)
; 60(3)2024 Mar 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38541190
ABSTRACT
Background and Objectives:
According to the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3), sepsis is defined as "life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection". The increased presence of free radicals causes an increase in oxidative stress. Vitamin C is an essential water-soluble vitamin with antioxidant activity and immunoregulatory effects that plays a potential role in the treatment of bacterial infections. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of adding vitamin C to the conventional treatment of sepsis to decrease its mortality rate. Materials andMethods:
In a prospective cohort study, we included patients with a diagnosis of sepsis and a SOFA score ≥ 9 who were evaluated in an Intensive Care Unit at a secondary-care hospital. According to the intensive care specialist, they were treated using two different strategies Group 1-patients with sepsis treated with conventional treatment without vitamin C; Group 2-patients with sepsis with the addition of vitamin C to conventional treatment.Results:
We included 34 patients with sepsis. The incidence of mortality was 38%, and 47% of patients used vitamin C as an adjuvant to the basic treatment of sepsis. In the basal analyses, patients treated with use of vitamin C compared to patients treated without vitamin C required less use of glucocorticoids (75% vs. 100%, p = 0.039). At follow-up, patients treated without vitamin C had higher mortality than patients treated with vitamin C as an adjuvant for the treatment of sepsis (55.6% vs. 18.8%, p = 0.03). We observed that the use of vitamin C was a protective factor for mortality in patients with sepsis (RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.31-0.96, p = 0.03).Conclusions:
The use of vitamin C as an adjuvant to treatment decreases the risk of mortality by 46% in patients with sepsis and SOFA ≥ 9 compared to patients treated without vitamin C as an adjuvant to sepsis.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Contexto em Saúde:
4_TD
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Ácido Ascórbico
/
Sepse
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Medicina (Kaunas)
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article