Advances in the therapy for sepsis in children.

Sepsis remains a major clinical problem in children, with a high mortality rate. Recent discoveries have identified the major cytokines involved in sepsis and several anticytokine strategies have been used in clinical trials. Antiendotoxin, anticytokine, and even steroid therapy have been studied in humans, with limited success. Several of the clinical trials of immunotherapy in sepsis are reviewed, and the inherent pitfalls in the varied clinical approaches investigated are analyzed.