A new study based on data from more than 20,000 patients has found statins may lower the risk of death in critically ill sepsis patients.
To conduct the study, researchers pulled data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV, which houses de-identified information from ICU patients admitted to Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The study focused on adults with a sepsis diagnosis who were hospitalized for more than 24 hours.
Researchers compared outcomes between a cohort of patients who did and did not receive statins during their ICU stay. Among those who received statins, the 28-day mortality rate was 14.3%, compared to 23.4% in the non-statin group — marking a 39% lower risk of death, according to the findings, published June 5 in Frontiers in Immunology.
Statin use was also linked to lower ICU and in-hospital mortality. Researchers also noted that patients in the statin group required slightly longer durations of mechanical ventilation and renal therapy, which they attributed to increased survival rather than worse outcomes.
“These results strongly suggest that statins may provide a protective effect and improve clinical outcomes for patients with sepsis,” Dr. Caifeng Li, study author and associate professor at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in China, said in a news release.
