[Immunotherapy of sepsis and septic shock]

An extraordinary advance in basic sciences and technology did not reduce high lethality rate of the septic shock patients. The lethality rate of those patients was and still is around 50%. A new knowledge about a role of an inflammatory response on the infection in the later fatal course of the septic patients, led to the new approach in the treatment. A trial to block an endotoxin, cytokines, especially TNF and IL-1, as well as some other substances, in experimental models of sepsis, in spite of inconsistent results, is promising. A clinical experiences are disappointing, at first because of our still poor knowledge about various cytokines cascade, feedback mechanisms, cellular protective mechanisms, etc. The new chapter on the treatment of that highly lethal syndrome is open, though a final achievement of that approach is not clear till now.