New sepsis treatment draws skepticism

One doctor’s claims of having a new and effective treatment for sepsis may be true, NPR reports, but he needs better clinical evidence to prove it.

Sepsis kills about 300,000 people a year, making it the leading cause of death in hospitals. So it would make a big difference if others can replicate the results of Paul Marik, MD, an intensive care physician at the Eastern Virginia Medical Center in Norfolk. He said using a mix of intravenous corticosteroids, vitamin C and vitamin B, along with careful management of fluids, he treated 150 sepsis patients and had only one die of the condition.

But his results don’t come from a randomized trial run at multiple hospitals, and doing such an experiment may take up to two years, leaving the medical world skeptical of Marik’s promises in the meantime.

“Nothing has worked despite all the great ideas people have had, often ballyhooed with observational data like this, claiming that it's a big effect,” said former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, MD.

Other doctors, however, are already planning on using Marik’s techniques, even without more robust clinical evidence.

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