[Complement system during hemofiltration in patients with multiple organ failure]

Nine patients (8 men and 1 woman) were treated. Sepsis was diagnosed in 7 of them. All patients were subjected to forced ventilation of the lungs, 6 were in need of inotropic support. The severity of clinical status was 31 +/- 0.8 according to APACHE II score. One patient survived. The main method of substitute renal therapy (SRT) was permanent hemofiltration with spontaneous arteriovenous perfusion. The results indicate manifest depletion of the complement system augmenting with the progress of multiple organ failure (MOF). Extracorporeal perfusion in SRT had no additional negative effects on the complement system damaged by disease. Nonselective penetration of individual complement fractions into the filtrate in the course of perfusion was noted. Therefore, the complement system is severely damaged in patients with MOF; it can modulate the SRT because of penetration of its individual fractions.