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group despite sepsis protocols at both institutions calling for
their immediate administration. While not directly associated with the primary outcome of this study, evidence has
linked increased time to antimicrobial therapy with higher
rates of mortality.19 In addition, case patients were identified
utilizing home medication reconciliation documentation.
Some patients did not have documented home medications,
and inconsistencies were sometimes noted between the physician-provided home medication list and the list entered into
the electronic medical record. This could potentially skew
the results if patients were misclassified based on statin
exposure. Due to the retrospective nature of this study, adherence to statin therapy could not be accurately assessed. This
could confound the results as duration and consistency of
previous statin exposure could have varied among patients in
the case group.

Conclusion
Despite previous reports, the results of this study indicate
that long-term statin exposure does not impact the duration
of vasopressor therapy in patients presenting with septic
shock. In addition, statins do not affect mortality, length of
ICU or hospital stay, initial SOFA scores, duration of antibiotic use, or steroid use in the setting of septic shock. The lack
of significant differences between groups in this study supports the concept that sepsis involves both pro- and antiinflammatory pathways as well as other nonimmunologic
pathways. Our results lend further credence to the most
recent conceptualization of sepsis, with complications of this
disease state leading to life-threatening organ dysfunction
caused not primarily due to inflammatory responses but by a
dysregulated host response to infection.

Hospital Pharmacy 53(3)

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Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

15.

Funding

16.

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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