Influence of extracorporeal cytokine adsorption on hemodynamics in severe acute pancreatitis: Results of the matched cohort pancreatitis cytosorbents inflammatory cytokine removal (PACIFIC) study

Background: Outcome of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) highly depends on the degree of systemic inflammation and organ failure. Although treatment approaches targeting the inflammatory cascade have failed in pancreatitis, recent studies suggest that extracorporeal cytokine adsorption effectively reduces concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and potentially improves the outcome of sepsis. Methods: Sixteen patients with SAP, presenting within 7 days upon onset of pain, an APACHE-II score of ≥10 and ≥1 marker of poor prognosis, received 2 consecutive 24-h treatments with CytoSorb® extracorporeal cytokine adsorption (intervention group). Hemodynamics, organ failure, and mortality were compared with an APACHE-II score-matched retrospective control group of 32 patients. Results: The primary objective (20% decrease in the vasopressor dependency index or 20% increase in the cardiac index) was reached in 68.8% of the intervention and 28.1% of the control patients (p = 0.007), respectively. The cytokine adsorption significantly reduced IL-6 (−1998 pg/ml, p = 0.005) serum levels and resulted in stable CRP (p = 0.101) and decreased PCT (p = 0.003) levels in contrast to increased CRP (p = 0.014) and stable PCT levels (p = 0.695) in the control group. While mortality and improvement of respiratory failure were similar in both groups, renal failure significantly improved (change of KDIGO classification 72 h postcytokine adsorption [−1 vs. 0, p = 0.005]) and the SOFA score significantly decreased (day 5: −1.8 ± 2.0 vs. 1 ± 3.8, p = 0.013) in the intervention group. Conclusion: Cytokine adsorption might be an effective treatment option to stabilize hemodynamics in SAP. It decreases levels of the pro-inflammatory marker IL-6 and stabilizes organ function according to serial SOFA score assessments.