New EHEC therapy shows treatment success

Blood scrub therapy successfully tested on twelve EHEC patients

07.09.2011

In the course of the past EHEC epidemic in Germany, doctors at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the Greifswald University Hospital have successfully tested a special blood-washing therapy for the first time.

The treated patients showed in advance of the blood wash particularly severe EHEC symptoms such as the so-called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), massive neurological deficits and kidney failure, report Hanoverians and Greifswald physicians in the latest issue of the journal „The Lancet“. All patients treated with this novel treatment have survived EHEC infection and are relatively well. None of those affected was dependent on further dialysis after completion and in a large part of the patients, the neurological disorders have also regressed.

New treatment method shows immediate success
A total of twelve people infected with EHEC - five at the Greifswald University Hospital and seven at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) - were treated with the novel blood-washing therapy during the EHEC epidemic. The therapy was aimed not only at a reduction of the toxin Shigatoxin produced by the EHEC bacteria, but also at the reduction of the antibody formation, as this is also responsible for the occurrence of the particularly severe EHEC symptoms, explained the physicians. After other therapeutic trials such as a plasma exchange and the administration of antibodies had shown no success, the physicians in Hanover and Greifswald decided for the use of the novel blood wash therapy. The disease state of the patients had already improved immediately after the start of treatment, said the transfusion physician of the Greifswald University Hospital, Andreas Greinacher.

EHEC infection wave with long-term consequences
Today, according to the medical profession, ten of the twelve treated EHEC patients no longer show any neurological symptoms. According to the MHH doctor Jan Kielstein, the remaining two patients are currently on the road to recovery, but are still being treated in neurological rehabilitation. In addition, none of the 38- to 63-year-olds had needed dialysis since the end of treatment, the doctors said in their publication. In Jan Kielstein's opinion, this was particularly gratifying as, according to him, between ten and twenty patients suffering from particularly severe EHEC symptoms in the course of the EHEC epidemic would be dependent on dialysis in the long term. During the epidemic of infection between May and July 2011 with the new, particularly dangerous intestinal bacterium HUSEC 041 of the genus Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), according to the Robert Koch Institute, almost 3,500 people throughout Germany contracted EHEC infection. More than 450 of the total of 733 patients who were subsequently treated for haemolytic uraemic syndrome had to undergo dialysis (blood washing), 50 patients died as a result of the EHEC infection, explained Jan Kielstein. (Fp)

Continue reading:
Symptoms of EHEC infection
EHEC epidemic survived

Picture: Markus Wegner