Blood Purification Techniques in Critical Care Medicine
Summary
Blood purification in critical care exploits extracorporeal circuits to modulate the dysregulated host response in life-threatening conditions such as sepsis, acute kidney injury and cytokine storm. Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) delivers slow and gentle fluid removal combined with solute clearance by diffusion, convection and adsorption. Haemofiltration and haemodiafiltration employ semipermeable membranes to remove small solutes and inflammatory mediators, while adsorption‐based haemofilters bind cytokines, pathogen- or damage-associated molecular patterns and, in some systems, activated immune cells. Recent advances include membranes engineered for enhanced mediator binding, novel sorbent columns targeting neutrophils and tailored pore architectures that optimise selectivity. These techniques have global application in managing severe infections, multi-organ failure and hyperinflammatory syndromes, serving as adjuncts to antimicrobial and supportive therapies.
Research from Nature Portfolio
No recent Nature Portfolio content available.
Blood Purification Techniques in Critical Care Medicine publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in blood purification techniques in critical care medicine across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT): An extracorporeal modality providing sustained removal of fluid and solutes for haemodynamically unstable patients.
Haemofilter: A device containing a semipermeable membrane used in CRRT to separate blood from a filtrate, enabling solute and fluid removal.
Adsorption: The process by which molecules adhere to the surface of a solid phase, as in cytokine or drug binding to filter membranes.
Cytokine: A signalling protein released by immune cells that mediates inflammation and can drive the hyperinflammatory state in critical illness.
References
- Comparison of the cytokine adsorption ability in continuous renal replacement therapy using polyethyleneimine-coated polyacrylonitrile (AN69ST) or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) hemofilters: a pilot single-center open-label randomized control trial. European Journal of Medical Research (2023).
- In vitro effects of anti-MRSA agent adsorption onto the AN69ST hemofilter. Renal Replacement Therapy (2024).
- Comprehensive analysis of cytokine adsorption properties of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) membrane material. Journal of Artificial Organs (2022).
- Targeting Cytokines, Pathogen-Associated Molecular Patterns, and Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Sepsis via Blood Purification. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2021).
About these summaries
This Nature Research Intelligence Topic summary is created with the cited references and a large language model. We take care to ground generated text with facts, and have systems in place to gain human feedback on the overall quality of the process in line with our AI principles. We strive to create accurate and useful summaries for people unfamiliar with the research topic and that supports this goal. These pages are a beta release and will be updated as we learn how best to help people gain value from a research topic summary.
Turn complex research questions into confident strategic decisions
When you're under pressure to set direction, justify investment, or understand your competitive position, you need more than raw data — you need trusted insights you can act on.
Benchmark your performance against global peers using robust, methodologically sound analysis.
Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative expert insight to uncover strengths, gaps and emerging opportunities.
Gain tailored, decision-ready recommendations aligned to your strategic priorities.
Talk to us to learn more about our data dashboards and bespoke strategy reports.
Grow research skills, confidence and careers with training built for every stage of the research lifecycle.
Developed with Nature Portfolio journal Editors and internationally renowned experts. Discover three ways to learn:
Self-paced, online courses in convenient bite-sized units, covering key skills across scientific writing, publishing, grant writing, data analysis, and more.
Expert trainer-led workshops with hands-on exercises and real-time feedback across core research skills, delivered via interactive group sessions.
Editor-led workshops combining core principles in writing and publishing, personalised 1:1 feedback from Nature Portfolio Editors and hands-on exercises.
Explore course catalogues and workshop agendas, enquire about the options or request institutional pricing.