Compositional, structural, and functional alterations in pulmonary surfactant in surgical patients after the early onset of systemic inflammatory response syndrome or sepsis

Abstract

These observations show that surgical patients with SIRS or sepsis who have mild-to-moderate lung injury develop surfactant dysfunction detectable within 7 days of onset. We propose, therefore, that therapeutic strategies to modulate these severe surfactant abnormalities should be considered, as these strategies may have the potential to reduce lung injury, which is associated with a high mortality in sepsis.