Doctors advised to take special care with human albumin

The Committee on Safety of Medicines has advised doctors to restrict the use of, and take special care when using, human albumin after concerns that far from saving life the preparation may actually increase mortality.

A systematic review by the Cochrane Group published last year (BMJ 1998;317:253-40) of 23 randomised controlled trials, including 1419 critically ill patients with hypovolaemia, burns, and hypoalbuminaemia, found that the risk of death in the group treated with albumin was …