Dr. Paul E. Marik proclaims end to corticosteroid monotherapy for sepsis

SAN ANTONIO – While critical care specialists await more data on a so-called sepsis cocktail with varying degrees of hope and skepticism, Paul E. Marik, MD, FCCP, has proclaimed the dawning of a new era.

Dr. Marik became a celebrity in the critical care medicine community after he and his colleagues reported the results of his retrospective study evaluating the combination of hydrocortisone, vitamin C, and thiamine for treatment of severe sepsis and septic shock (Chest. 2017 June. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2016.11.036).

Since this study, several physicians have already been putting Dr. Marik’s method to practice, the investigator and audience members noted during a session at the Critical Care Congress sponsored by the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

“My point is, steroids work, but they don’t work well alone, and the era of glucocorticoid monotherapy has come to an end,” Dr. Marik said in his presentation at the meeting.

^{Andrew D. Bowser/Frontline Medical News}

Dr. Paul E. Marik

These comments echoed Dr. Marik’s May 2017 editorial in Critical Care Medicine, in which he suggested that critically ill and injured patients may benefit from combination therapy with hydrocortisone and vitamin C (Crit Care Med 2017 May;45[5]910-1).