Pancreatitis cytosorbents (CytoSorb) inflammatory cytokine removal

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) usually has a mild course with a mortality rate below 1%. However, around 10% of patients develop severe AP (SAP) involving extra-pancreatic tissues and other organ systems. The mortality of SAP is around 42%. The outcome of SAP is closely related to the development of systemic inflammation and consecutive organ failures. Most current therapies including fluid resuscitation, antimicrobial therapy, drainage procedures, and endoscopic management of complications are symptomatic rather than causative approaches, except sphincterotomy for gallstone pancreatitis. Regarding the high mortality of SAP and its close association with systemic inflammation, extracorporeal removal of inflammatory mediators is an appealing approach. Several recent studies have demonstrated that the CytoSorb adsorber effectively eliminates inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF-alpha. Some of these trials suggested that therapy with CytoSorb might improve outcome, including a reduction in the vasopressor dosage and reversal of shock. Therefore, it is the objective of this study to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 consecutive 24 h-treatments with CytoSorb on hemodynamics in patients with early SAP. Methods: This study includes patients with early SAP (APACHE-II ≥10) and transpulmonary thermodilution hemodynamic monitoring (PiCCO; EV-1000) within a maximum of seven days from the onset of pain. Eligible patients will be treated with 2 consecutive periods of CytoSorb. A 20%-improvement in the vasopressor dependency index (VDI) - which relates is derived from mean arterial pressure (MAP) and catecholamine dosage - is the primary outcome. In addition to this clinical outcome, there are several laboratory (cytokine levels) and translational endpoints (including multiplex-ELISAs of numerous anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and DNA analyses). Primary outcome analysis will compare the incidence of the primary endpoint in 30 patients from the intervention group to 60 matched controls with advanced hemodynamic monitoring recruited from recent studies in SAP within the same setting and the same centers. Discussion: A potential improvement in hemodynamics and/or other outcomes by CytoSorb would provide a new therapeutic option in the early treatment of SAP with a pathophysiological rationale.