Sepsis was once commonly known as “blood poisoning.” It was almost always deadly. Today, even with early treatment, sepsis kills about 1 in 5 affected people. It causes symptoms such as fever, chills, rapid breathing, and confusion. Anyone can get sepsis, but the elderly, children, and infants are most vulnerable.
Most people recover from mild sepsis, but the mortality rate for septic shock is about 30% to 40%. Also, an episode of severe sepsis raises the risk for future infections.
While septic shock can be fatal, many patients can make a complete recovery if they are diagnosed and treated early with antibiotics, intravenous fluids, and blood pressure support. At Yale Medicine, our physicians are involved in research to find ways to detect sepsis earlier and potential new treatment options.
Hospital mortality of patients with septic shock is more than 40% (2).
Ideally, antibiotic treatment should start within an hour of diagnosis. Intravenous antibiotics are usually replaced by tablets after 2 to 4 days. You may have to take them for 7 to 10 days or longer, depending on the severity of your condition.
Early symptoms include fever and feeling unwell, faint, weak, or confused. You may notice your heart rate and breathing are faster than usual. If it's not treated, sepsis can harm your organs, make it hard to breathe, and mess up your thinking.
Sepsis can overwhelm the body. This can cause vital organs to shut down. This usually starts with the kidneys. Blood pressure can drop dangerously low.
A 2018 retrospective analysis of more than 2 million U.S. sepsis hospitalizations reported that the median length of stay (LOS) for sepsis increased with disease severity ranging from 7.7 days, 10 days, and 12.6 days for sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock, respectively.
Healthcare professionals should treat sepsis with antibiotics as soon as possible. Antibiotics are critical tools for treating life-threatening infections, like those that can lead to sepsis. However, as antibiotic resistance grows, infections are becoming more difficult to treat.
Bacterial infections cause most cases of sepsis. Sepsis can also be a result of other infections, including viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza, or fungal infections.
Most symptoms of post-sepsis syndrome should get better on their own. But it can take time. There are things you can do to help with some long-term effects.
If an infection does occur, your immune system will try to fight it, although you may need help with medication such as antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics.
Treatment for sepsis is most successful if the condition is spotted early and then treated quickly with antibiotics to fight the infection and fluids to maintain blood pressure.
Patients with sepsis, who require ICU care, have an extremely poor prognosis. It has been shown that the mortality rates range from 20.7% (severe sepsis) to 45.7% (septic shock) [1].
What causes sepsis? Most sepsis is caused by bacterial infections, but it can also be caused by viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza; fungal infections; or noninfectious insults, such as traumatic injury.
If the infection has spread or you have a generalized infection, you may develop other signs and symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, pain, etc. Sometimes however, you may have an infection and not know it, and not have any symptoms.
For example, the “golden hour” as applied to the treatment of critically children and adults with severe sepsis and septic shock is based upon early recognition, early administration of antibiotics, and early reversal of the shock state.
The diagnosis of sepsis in critically ill patients is challenging, because it can be complicated by the presence of inflammation as a result of other underlying disease processes and prior use of antibiotics making cultures negative.
Examples include ceftriaxone (Rocephin), piperacillin-tazobactam, cefepime (Maxipime), ceftazidime (Fortaz), vancomycin (Firvanq), ciprofloxacin (Cipro), and levofloxacin (Levaquin). If you have mild sepsis, you may receive a prescription for antibiotics to take at home.
While most patients with sepsis recover fully, those patients who go on to develop severe complications such as septic shock may need additional support and possibly rehabilitation on their road to recovery. Managing sepsis at home, after discharge from the hospital includes addressing several factors.
Once a person is diagnosed with sepsis, she will be treated with antibiotics, IV fluids and support for failing organs, such as dialysis or mechanical ventilation. This usually means a person needs to be hospitalized, often in an ICU.
You'll usually be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) so your body's functions and organs can be supported while the infection is treated. In some cases treatment may start in the emergency department.
Sepsis can develop quickly from initial infection and progress to septic shock in as little as 12 to 24 hours. 1 You may have an infection that's not improving or you could even be sick without realizing it.
System): In septic shock, the blood pressure can drop too low to keep the person alive. A person with septic shock can develop chest pain, heart failure, and may appear like he or she is having a heart attack.
Immediate action required: Call 999 or go to A&E if:
a rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it, the same as meningitis. difficulty breathing (you may notice grunting noises or their stomach sucking under their ribcage), breathlessness or breathing very fast.