Does the prophylactic administration of filgrastim (r-metHuG-CSF) reduce infectious complications in surgical intensive care patients?

Background and Methods: In a randomized study including 30 ICU patients wit h SIRS the effect of rhG-CSF on infectious complications was studied. Fourt een patients were treated with rhG-CSF for 10 days, 16 patients served as c ontrols. Results: While applying a constant dosage of 1 mu g/kg the leucocytes raise d 4-5 fold with a maximum at day 8. Within the treatment group 2 patients ( 14.28%) developed sepsis vs. 5 patients (31.25%) in the control group. Six patients of the rhG-CSF group (43%) and 11 patients of the control group (6 9%) were treated with antibiotics. One patient of the control group died. Conclusions: The applied rhG-CSF dosage of 1 mu g/kg shows no side effects and seems tc, lower the risk of infection or sepsis in surgical intensive c are patients with SIRS.