ExThera Medical

The Inflammatory Response in Humans

Inflammation is a normal biological response initiated to remove an agent causing tissue injury, and is important to begin the healing process in tissue. Inflammation can be caused by infection, but the two processes are distinct. Treating one does not always result in the successful treatment of the other.

In serious cases of inflammation, the inflammatory response becomes systemic, affecting the entire body. Mortality from sepsis, for example, and septic shock resulting from sepsis can range as high as 60% of affected patients. Health care costs resulting from inflammation are in the billions of dollars in the US alone, and wreak a tremendous burden on the most expensive facilities and equipment found in hospitals.