Sepsis Case Study

Sepsis and Septic Shock have been my personal topic after the life of young Kamil Williams and a 31-year-old Texas man who both contacted a bacterial infection later turn into sepsis. Although I have not formally studied it during my school or university years, I still find the human body, how it can break down and react to certain ailments interesting. The next question would be why does this happen? Well when there is infection or insult upon the body’s immune system normal reacts and causing an inflammatory response. This normally a good thing and it promotes healing and the resolution of the insult, however in Septic Shock the inflammatory response comes explosive and uncontrollable. According to Allison Hotujec, the author of “Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Protocols,” Sepsis has been called a “malignant intravascular inflammation.” The term malignant is because it is uncontrolled unregulated and self-perpetuating, in the usual immune response here is release of both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators, these balance to promote tissue

Sepsis is defined by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) as “the presence (probable or documented) of infection together with systemic manifestations of infection” (Dellinger et al.,

Septic shock is the leading cause of death for patients in intensive care units and is the final stage in a continuum of infectious and inflammatory processes. This continuum begins with bacteremia, which is the presence of bacteria in the blood. Normally the body’s immune system can fight off a localized infection caused by a small amount of bacteria in the blood and the person will remain asymptomatic. However, a hospitalized patient could be immunocompromised, have a

Sepsis is a substantial health care condition. Jones et al. (2016) describes sepsis as the “11th leading cause of death in the United States ranking 10th in people 65 years of age and older” (p. 122). This impact of mortality from sepsis is devastating to many families in the United States. Facing the health care system also is the cost of septicemia. Septicemia was the most costly and most common reason for hospitalization, as reported by Jones et al (2016) “accounting for 1,094,000 hospital stays and $20.3 billion in aggregated hospital costs, the average cost for an admission for sepsis at $18,600” (p. 122).

Sepsis is defined as the body’s inflammatory response to an infection and can quickly lead to multiple organ failure and death. Early, goal-directed therapy using the sepsis resuscitation bundle introduced in the “Surviving Sepsis Campaign” is the treatment used throughout the world for sepsis treatment (Winterbottom 2012, pp 247). There are approximately one million cases of sepsis in the United States annually and deaths total more than prostate cancer, breast cancer, and HIV/AIDS combined. Also, more than one-fourth of patients that develop sepsis will develop it on a medical-surgical unit and severe sepsis is the most common cause of

Sepsis is a very serious condition with a high mortality rate that ranges from 28-50%. 9

et al., 2008). Sepsis is a frequent cause of admission to intensive care units (ICUs) and it

With sepsis becoming a growing concern with each passing day, we must develop new ways to combat it aggressively. With EMS becoming a more advanced, educated, and integral member of the health care team; there must be an inclusion of them into the early and advanced treatment of sepsis. According to a research team in the Netherlands 3.3 out of every 100 patients encountered by EMS in the United States have severe sepsis diagnoses, compared to only 2.3 per 100 for myocardial infarction and 2.2 per 100 for stroke (Van der Wekken et al., 2016). This is massive considering it is not considered a time critical diagnosis like myocardial infarction and stroke already are. The Revised Sepsis Syndrome Classification and Prehospital Sepsis Alert Score are the potential solution to these issues and look to increase rapid recognition, advanced treatment, and decrease mortality from this destructive and aggressive pathological process.

Is sepsis complicated by organ dysfunction, is diagnosed in more than 750,000 patients per year and has mortality rates as high as 28%-50%.

Neonatal sepsis is potentially fatal blood stream infection occurring in the first month of life (1). It causes long duration of hospital stay in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and associated with additional expenses, morbidity and long term adverse outcome.(2)

multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) may be result from sepsis, which has a mortality rate of between 30% and 50% (Nesseler, 2012). when the vascular endothelium are damaged it causes edema and collection of neutrophils and macrophages.in the damage site, there isreduced in gas exchange, nutrients cannot reached into the tissues and waste products cannot diffuse out. An organ with significant damage to its vascular endothelium ends up poorly perfused and ischemic. Such an organ will function poorly (organ dysfunction) or it will fail altogether. As sepsis continues, it causes increasing organ dysfunction and then organ failure, and the risk of the patient dying doubles for each organ that fails

Neonatal sepsis is a blood infection that occurs in an infant younger than 3 months old. Early-onset sepsis is normally seen during the first week of life. It is most often caused by bacteria or infection acquired by the mother during her pregnancy.

Sepsis is a debilitating, potentially life threatening condition that has become a big burden on the health system worldwide. Early recognition and aggressive timely treatment have proven to be life saving interventions. South Miami Hospital (SMH) aims to provide safe care to our community by implementing and utilizing evidence –based guidelines and protocols. According to research, early identification of patients presenting with signs and symptoms of sepsis is crucial to patients’ survival. In order to achieve this goal SMH Emergency Department (ED) implemented a triage sepsis-screening tool, an intervention that as evidenced by research helps to recognize patients at risk for developing sepsis or presenting with this devastating disease.

In the early 1990s at a conference convened by the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of Critical Care Medicine modern definitions of “sepsis” were termed in detail. At that time, “sepsis” was described as a systemic response to a physiologic insult including infections and other etiologies that lead to the development of further organ injury, ultimately culminating in multiple organ dysfunction syndromes.

Septic shock results from bacteria that multiply in the blood and then releases toxins that decrease blood pressure, thus, impairing blood flow to cells, tissues and organs. It is an acute infection, usually systemic, that overwhelms the body (toxic shock syndrome) (Huether & Mccance, 2012). This