Statins can reduce sepsis deaths, study suggests

People who are critically ill with sepsis may be more likely to survive if they are given statins, a new study suggests.

Researchers wanted to explore whether the cholesterol-busting drugs may bring additional benefits for patients.

The new study examined information on sepsis patients who received statins during a stint in intensive care and compared it with patients in a similar situation who did not receive statins.

Some 14.3% of 6,000 sepsis patients who were given statins died within 28 days.

This is compared with 23.4% of 6,000 patients who did not receive statin therapy.

The research team from China said that this equates to a 39% reduced risk of death within a month.

The research, based on data from thousands of patients at a hospital in Israel between 2008 and 2019, also found that 7.4% of statin patients died while in the intensive care unit compared with 13.6% of those who did not receive statins.

And during their overall hospital stay, some 11.5% of sepsis patients who were given statins died, compared with 19.1% of sepsis patients who did not take statins.

However, it appeared that those who were not prescribed statins had a slightly shorter hospital stay compared with those who did receive them – an average of eight days compared with almost 10 days.

“We found that statin users exhibited decreased 28-day all-cause mortality,” the authors wrote in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection that occurs when the immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body’s tissues and organs.

In the UK, 245,000 people are affected by sepsis every year.

UK sepsis experts said that “anything which might reduce the burden of a condition which claims one in five lives worldwide needs to be rigorously explored” as they called for larger trials to confirm the findings.

Statins are known as cholesterol-busting drugs because they can help lower the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the blood.

But experts said that they also have other benefits, including reducing inflammation and antibacterial effects.

The research team called for larger trials to confirm their findings.

“Our large, matched cohort study found that treatment with statins was associated with a 39% lower death rate for critically ill patients with sepsis, when measured over 28 days after hospital admission,” said Dr Caifeng Li, the study’s corresponding author and an associate professor at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in China.

“These results strongly suggest that statins may provide a protective effect and improve clinical outcomes for patients with sepsis.”

Commenting on the study, Dr Ron Daniels, founder and chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, said: “It has been known for some time that the anti-inflammatory properties of statins confer a survival benefit on those who take them if they develop sepsis.

“Whilst previous studies have failed to show a similar survival benefit in treating people with sepsis with statins, this new study supports calls for a large, multi-country, randomised control trial.

“Anything which might reduce the burden of a condition which claims one in five lives worldwide needs to be rigorously explored.”