Experience using Adacolumn^®, a blood cell removal purification device for patients with sepsis

Abstract

Adacolumn^®, a purifier for blood cell removal, is a blood purification column that was listed in Japanese insurance in 2000 for inducing remission in active ulcerative colitis. We participated in a clinical trial conducted to expand the indication of Adacolumn^® for the treatment of sepsis. Herein, we aimed to report on our experience using this device. Nine patients with sepsis were registered at our facility; two patients with worsening symptoms discontinued the trial midway. No serious adverse events were observed during administration. One patient experienced a decrease in blood pressure while administering Adacolumn^®. The APACHE Ⅱ score of the nine patients who had enrolled for the study was 29.4 ± 3.8; their SOFA score was 8.7 ± 1.1. On the 7th day of illness, seven out of the nine patients（two patients had discontinued the study）displayed a significant SOFA score of 4.0 ± 1.3. A decrease was confirmed（p＝0.0165）. Improvements were also confirmed by measuring other markers; however, because this study was a noninferiority study and the number of patients was small, it was challenging to determine whether the improvement in these values was because of the effects of Adacolumn^® based only on the results of this study.