Vitamin C infusions may improve recovery time and survival rates for sepsis patients, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study involved 167 patients with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome who were admitted to seven medical intensive care units in the U.S. between September 2014 and November 2017. Researchers from Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University randomly assigned patients to receive either an intravenous infusion of vitamin C or a placebo every six hours for four days.
The mortality rate among patients who received the vitamin C therapy was 29.8 percent at day 28, compared to 46.3 percent for the placebo group. Patients who received this therapy also spent, on average, three fewer days in the ICU and a week less in the hospital compared to the placebo group.
"We did not find evidence that vitamin C improves sepsis-related organ failure in this particular trial, but it significantly reduced how long patients were hospitalized," lead author Berry Fowler, MD, a professor at the VCU School of Medicine, said in a news release.