Authors' objectives:

To summarise the available evidence on activated protein C for severe sepsis.

Authors' recommendations: - Severe sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection involving organ dysfunction. Severe sepsis is a common cause of death and is associated with a 20% to 56% mortality rate. - Drotrecogin alpha (activated) is a recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) approved in the U.S. for the reduction of mortality in adult patients with severe sepsis who have a high risk of death. - Drotrecogin alpha (activated), when administered to adult patients with clinically-defined severe sepsis, demonstrated a 6.1% absolute reduction (p=0.005) in 28-day all-cause mortality in one published, randomized, double-blind study of 1,690 patients (PROWESS). - Drotrecogin alpha (activated) is used as an adjunct to standard therapy and is therefore an "add-on" cost. - Close attention must be paid to proper patient selection for treatment with drotrecogin alpha (activated). Certain individuals, such as those at a greater risk of bleeding, could be harmed from therapy. The benefit or harm in individuals not meeting the trial selection criteria is uncertain.

Authors' methods: Overview

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: https://www.ccohta.ca/research/index.html

Year Published: 2002

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Canada

Organisation Name: Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment

Contact Address: 600-865 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, ON K1S 5S8 Canada. Tel: +1 613 226 2553, Fax: +1 613 226 5392;

Contact Name: requests@cadth.ca

Contact Email: requests@cadth.ca

Copyright: Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment