Efficacy and Safety of Recombinant Human Activated Protein C for Severe Sepsis

This chapter provides a summary of the landmark study known as the PROWESS Study. Does treatment with DAA reduce the rate of death from any cause among patients with severe sepsis? Starting with that question, it describes the basics of the study, including funding, study location, who was studied, how many patients, study design, study intervention, follow-up, endpoints, results, and criticism and limitations. The chapter briefly reviews other relevant studies and information, discusses implications, and concludes with a relevant clinical case. The PROWESS trial demonstrated a mortality benefit for DAA among patients with severe sepsis. However, the subsequent ADDRESS, RESOLVE, and PROWESS-SHOCK trials did not demonstrate a benefit of the medication, thus calling the results of PROWESS into question.