Corvallis Hospital Participates in Nationwide Sepsis Study June 6, 2022 A treatment that Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center helped pioneer in the fight against COVID‑19 will soon take on a new purpose. In the months to come the treatment will be used in a nationwide study of septic shock, a life‑threatening reaction to infection. The PURIFY‑RCT study will investigate the use of the Seraph 100 Microbind Affinity Blood Filter as a blood purification treatment for critically ill patients with septic shock. The study is funded by the Department of Defense and sponsored by the Uniformed Services University, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine and ExThera Medical Corp., the filter’s manufacturer. For more than a year, critical care specialist Brian Delmonaco, MD, and his intensive care team have found success using this blood filter on some of the sickest of the sick COVID‑19 patients. Now the ICU staff will use their expertise in the study that may last up to two years. “A study like the PURIFY‑RCT permits our critical care team to network with larger research centers,” said Dr. Delmonaco. The Seraph 100 filter received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April 2020 to treat critically ill COVID‑19 patients. Participants involved in the study will be ICU patients who have septic shock, bacteria in their blood and are on certain medications to raise abnormally low blood pressure. Good Samaritan, the only participant in the Pacific Northwest, has prestigious medical partners in the study that include Baylor Scott & White Health, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Southern California. “Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center is a small but mighty clinical site for the PURIFY‑RCT study. The caliber of the other clinical sites in terms of academic excellence puts us together with very esteemed company,” said Dr. Delmonaco. The research, which will enroll 60 patients, will compare in a ratio of 2‑to‑1 a larger group receiving Seraph filter treatment for up to four days and a smaller group receiving normal ICU care. “It is an honor to be a part of the PURIFY‑RCT study and to showcase our hospital among the nation’s best health research institutions,” said Dr. Delmonaco.
