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Has sepsis met its match? New treatment may save millions around the world
Eastern Virginia Medical School Magazine ^ | 9.4 017 | Staff

Posted on 2/20/2020, 12:04:13 PM by Norski

Sepsis, an infection that kills millions worldwide each year and is the third leading cause of death in the United States, may have finally met its match.

Paul Marik, the EVMS Foundation Distinguished Professor in Internal Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, believes he has developed a cure for the life-threatening infection. His treatment breakthrough promises to revolutionize sepsis care and produce results that are nothing short of astonishing.

Vitamin C is often used intravenously as part of a treatment for cancer.

Hydrocortisone is used to relieve inflammation and for a variety of conditions from arthritis to asthma.

Thiamine is a vitamin.

Sepsis is the leading cause of death among hospitalized patients.

As a critical-care physician and head of the general intensive care unit (GICU) at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Dr. Marik used to be locked in a struggle with sepsis. Despite his efforts, one to two people under his care died each week from the disease. That all changed unexpectedly Jan. 5, 2016.

The breakthrough came as Dr. Marik struggled to save a woman dying from overwhelming sepsis. He had recently read about vitamin C as a potential treatment for sepsis, and he recalled that steroids, a common treatment for sepsis, might work well in concert with the vitamin C.

Aware that both were safe and would not harm the patient, he gave her the vitamin C and steroid combination intravenously.

Within hours, his patient was recovering. Two days later she was well enough to leave the ICU.

Dr. Marik and is colleagues were astonished.

In the following days they used the combination therapy on two more patients seemingly destined to die of sepsis. Twice more the patients recovered. Dr. Marik and his team quickly adopted the combination therapy as standard practice.

(Excerpt) Read more at evms.edu ...

Here is his protocol:

Dosing Strategy PDF:

https://www.evms.edu/uploads/magazine/9-4/downloads/Dosing_strategy.pdf

1 | Page Vitamin C, Hydrocortisone and Thiamine For the treatment of Severe Sepsis and Septic ShockVitamin C, Hydrocortisone and Thiamine dosing protocol

Vitamin C: 1.5 g IV q 6 hourly for 4 days or until discharge from the ICU.

Hydrocortisone: 50mg IV q 6 hourly for 4 days or until discharge from the ICU. Taper is not required.

Thiamine: 200mg IV q 12 hourly for 4 days or until discharge from the ICU.

Alternative dosing: 100mg IV q 6 hourly for 4 days. Vitamin C: Vitamin C is provided by the manufacturer as a 50 ml vial at a concentration of 500mg/ml.

Three (3) ml of vitamin C will be placed in a 100ml bag of either dextrose 5% in water (D5W) or normal saline and infused over 30-60 minutes. The Vitamin C min-bag solution is stable for in excess of 24 hours (should be protected from light).

Hydrocortisone:Hydrocortisone 50 mg bolus q 6 hourly

Thiamine: Intravenous thiamine (200 mg) is placed in a piggyback in 50 ml of either D5W or normal saline and administered as a 30-minute infusion.

NOTE: The Vitamin C and Thiamine can both be mixed in the same mini-bag