With sepsis, your body's immune reaction to the infection causes an inflammatory response, which makes things worse, not better. This causes your body's organs to not work properly, which is life threatening. If sepsis is not treated quickly, it can cause organ failure, septic shock or even death.
Sepsis happens when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body. Infections that lead to sepsis most often start in the lung, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
When treatment or medical intervention is missing, sepsis is a leading cause of death, more significant than breast cancer, lung cancer, or heart attack. Research shows that the condition can kill an affected person in as little as 12 hours.
Septic shock: Septic shock is the last stage of sepsis and is defined by extremely low blood pressure, despite lots of IV (intravenous) fluids.
The organs more frequently affected are kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, central nervous system, and hematologic system. This multiple organ failure is the hallmark of sepsis and determines patients' course from infection to recovery or death.
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.
Organ failure, including kidney failure, is a hallmark of sepsis. As the body is overwhelmed, its organs begin to shut down, causing even more problems. The kidneys are often among the first to be affected.
High heart rate or weak pulse. Fever, shivering, or feeling very cold. Confusion or disorientation. Shortness of breath.
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.
NICE - the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - urges hospital staff to treat people with life-threatening sepsis within one hour, in its quality standard. In clinical practice, this is often referred to as the 'golden hour' after diagnosis.
You may need to stay in hospital for several weeks.
The condition can arise suddenly and progress quickly, and it's often hard to recognize. 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.
Sepsis often results in acute renal failure due to acute tubular necrosis and systemic hypotension, direct renal vasoconstriction and release of various cytokines are contributing factors.
Damage to the lungs can affect breathing. Another study, published in 2012 in the journal Shock, researchers found that sepsis survivors may be more vulnerable to developing viral respiratory (lung) infections. Other organs may be damaged as well, such as the kidneys or liver.
However, there might be other symptoms related to sepsis based on where the infection is. Abdominal pain is one such symptom.
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.
As sepsis worsens or septic shock develops, an early sign, particularly in older people or the very young, may be confusion or decreased alertness. Blood pressure decreases, yet the skin is paradoxically warm. Later, extremities become cool and pale, with peripheral cyanosis and mottling.
What causes sepsis? Sepsis happens when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body. Bacterial infections are the most common cause, but other types of infections can also cause it. The infections are often in the lungs, stomach, kidneys, or bladder.
A single diagnostic test for sepsis does not yet exist, and so doctors and healthcare professionals use a combination of tests and immediate and worrisome clinical signs, which include the following: The presence of an infection. Very low blood pressure and high heart rate. Increased breathing rate.
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.
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.
Septic shock, the most severe complication of sepsis, carries a high mortality. Septic shock occurs in response to an inciting agent, which causes both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory immune system activation.