What You Need to Know About Sepsis

July 22, 2011

Many people believe that sepsis is a blood infection or blood poisoning. However, sepsis occurs as a result of your body's response to an infection. The infection usually is a bacterial infection, but it also may be a viral, fungal or parasitic infection.

In fighting the infection, the immune system goes into overdrive and produces a response that can result in damage to the body. If sepsis syndrome is not diagnosed and treated quickly, the organs of the body can be permanently damaged by lack of blood perfusion to them. Widespread organ failure and death may follow.

Sepsis is a very serious condition. It has a high death rate, with approximately one-third of all people who develop the condition dying from it. In the United States, an estimated 215,000 people die each year from sepsis and an additional 750,000 are treated for it.

Diagnosing Sepsis

Medically, when diagnosing sepsis, physicians will look to see if patients have symptoms consistent with one of the three different levels of sepsis: sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock. The seriousness of the condition increases with each level. The symptoms also vary, depending on which level the patient has.

Patients with sepsis usually have at least two of the following symptoms:
- Fever (temperature 101.3 F or greater)
- Body temperature below 97 F
- Heart rate above normal for age. Infants and young children have a normal heart rate that is faster than the normal heart rate in adults.
- Respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths per minute for an adult.
- A white blood cell count of greater than 12,000 cells/mm3 or less than 4,000 cells/mm3
- Suspected or confirmed infection

Patients with severe sepsis have begun experiencing organ dysfunction and will have at least one of the following additional symptoms:
- Mottled skin which is an indication of decreased blood flow to the skin.
- Significant decrease in urine output, which is an indication of decreased blood flow to the kidneys.
- Sudden change in mental status
- Trouble breathing
- Abnormal heart function
- Decrease in platelet count

Lastly, patients with the most serious stage of sepsis, septic shock, will have extremely low blood pressure in addition to symptoms of severe sepsis.

Sepsis must be treated promptly to minimize the possibility of permanent injury or death. In general, sepsis is treated with IV fluids and antibiotics. Depending on the patient's condition, he or she may need to be treated in the ICU and also may require ventilation and dialysis if the lungs and kidneys have been affected.

Risk Factors Associated with Sepsis

Any person can develop sepsis - even healthy people - but certain risk factors make some people more susceptible than others. These factors include:
- Age - the elderly, children and babies are at greater risk
- Race - statistics show that African-American men have the highest risk
- Health - those with compromised immune systems are at greater risk, including those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, renal disease and liver disease, organ transplants, pneumonia, diabetes
- Medical implants - those with medical implants, such as hip and knee implants
- Invasive devices - those with invasive devices, such as catheters and breathing tubes

Those who are or who have been hospitalized for treatment of an illness, disease or for surgery are at greater risk of sepsis, particularly ICU patients, as bacterial infections can be carried through unsterilized or improperly handled central lines.

When to Contact an Attorney

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), sepsis occurs in 1-2 percent of all hospitalizations in the U.S. In some of these cases, a patient may develop sepsis as a result of a preventable medical error such as contamination of a surgical site or central venous catheter. In some cases, a treating physician may fail to recognize the warning signs of sepsis and delay the diagnosis of infection, resulting in great harm to the patient.

For more information on your legal rights regarding serious infections contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney. A lawyer knowledgeable in these types of cases can review your claim and help you determine the best way to proceed.

Article provided by Dallas W. Hartman P.C.
Visit us at www.dallashartman.com