Endotoxemia Fails to Predict Survival in Severe Intraabdominal Infection

Gram-negative sepsis with consecutive septic organ failure is responsible for the still persisting high mortality rate in severe intraabdominal infection as peritonitis or superinfected acute necrotizing pancreatitis. Endotoxins (lipopolysac-charides) are an important factor in the pathophysiology of septic shock by provoking the release of cytokines, especially tumor necrosis factor (TNF). The release of TNF in septic shock is well documented as a time- and dosage dependent consequence of endotoxemia [2, 7, 10, 12]. Our aim was to measure endotoxins in the course of intraabdominal infection and compare the levels of endotoxins with the outcome of these patients and search for a possible correlation of endotoxemia and prognosis.