THE FUTURE
Many modalities clearly hold great promise in terms of preventing the development
of MODS and treating its consequences once it does develop. These modalities include
the use of compounds that block the release of, or prevent the binding to receptors of,
endogenous mediators presumed to be partly responsible for the development of MODS.
While steroids [31], naloxone [32], and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs [33] have
all demonstrated utility in animal studies, none has been conclusively demonstrated to be
of benefit in clinical studies. The administration of antibodies to endotoxin has proven
equivocal [21, 22]. Ongoing studies are assessing the utility of antibodies to tumor necrosis
factor in preventing the development of MODS once patients develop sepsis.