Symptoms And Treatment Of Sepsis

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

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%.

Sepsis remains one of the most deadly diseases in the country. According to the literature, a majority of sepsis cases filter though the Emergency department. The diagnosis and treatment of sepsis are complex and the barriers to improving these things are even more intricate but the fact remains that improvement of sepsis care begins in the ED. Early recognition of sepsis using the SIRS criteria followed by multidisciplinary rapid response diagnostic testing and treatment are the keys to improvement of sepsis care in the ED.

There is a disease continuum with increasing severity if not treated or not responsive to treatment o Sepsis

Under the Core measures, Sepsis is one of the problem-focused trigger for systemic infection and if untreated which can lead to death. In United States, it is the 11th leading cause of death and consumes the large amount of costs about $20.3 billion in 2011 (Jones et al.,2016). According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1.5 million people diagnosed with sepsis, and at least 250,000 patients die from that yearly (CDC, 2017). The evidence-based research revealed with results of certain pre existing conditions, pathophysiological studies, preventive measures and sepsis bundle for treating and preventing sepsis to save the life of the patients.

The evolution of this project cultivated from the need of improvement for patients suffering from sepsis at MacNeal Hospital. Sepsis is a potentially fatal host response to infection that occurs as a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (Schub & Schub, 2013). I felt it was very important to re-evaluate what I can do as a nurse to improve the expected outcomes of sepsis patients and decrease their length of hospitalization. If a patient is admitted with severe sepsis, it places the patient at a higher level of risk than if he/she was admitted with an acute myocardial infarction or acute stroke (Robson & Daniels, 2013). I became interested in sepsis as my project when I became informed that MacNeal had started a Patients With Sepsis Orders Daily Reports, I decided I could enhance and develop an educational tool to help the case managers, emergency room nurses, and staff nurses with early recognition of sepsis and decreasing the length of stay. Angus and Van der Poll (2013) stated that the United States reported 2% of patients that were admitted to the hospital suffered from severe sepsis.

Finding a question to research seems like such an easy task however, in order to be able to do research one must find a topic with enough clinical research available in order to be able to compare and study. When preparing to do research it is imperative to have some type of format or structure to use as a guide while preforming your search. The PICOT format is a format that is very helpful in guiding efficient clinical searches (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015).

This leads us to the next step in the pathophysiology of Sepsis. Stage 2 of sepsis, which is when SIRS plus the confirmation of an infection has been made. At this stage, the patient’s body has been continuously fighting something in their body and it is starting to have an effect on the patient. Signs and symptoms of sepsis are often nonspecific and include the following: Fever, chills, or rigors, Confusion, Anxiety, Difficulty breathing, Fatigue, malaise, Nausea and vomiting. It is important to identify any potential source of infection. Localizing signs and symptoms referable to organ systems may provide useful clues to the etiology of sepsis and are as follows: Head and neck infections: Severe headache, neck stiffness, altered mental

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

Sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection, occurs when chemicals are released into the bloodstream to fight infection. These chemicals trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). Sepsis can be triggered by any type of infection: bacterial, viral, or fungal. Contrary to popular belief, sepsis is responsible for a great number of deaths in the United States alone. Sepsis kills more than 258,000 Americans per year, is the number one cause of death in hospitals, and kills more Americans than prostate cancer, breast cancer, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) combined. (Rory Staunton Foundation for Sepsis Prevention, n.d.) As cited in nursing journal, “Sepsis: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges,” ‘One of the

Septic shock is the stage of sepsis when multiple organ failure is evident and uncontrolled bleeding of the body occurs. Septic shock results from the complication of an infection where toxins initiate a full body inflammatory response. Viral, fungal, and bacterial infections can all lead to septic shock, but the most common causes of sepsis are gram- negative bacteria and gram-positive bacteria. Sepsis causes severe hypovolemic shock and hypodynamic cardiac function to affect the body, platelets and clotting factors are consumed and thus the body cannot clot blood. Capillary leak occurs and cardiac contractility is poor from cellular ischemia (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2011). For a person to be diagnosed with septic shock, they must have symptoms

organ failure, and death, especially if it is not recognized and treated promptly. Sepsis remains

Sepsis is a condition of growing concern for nursing professionals, as the mortality rate has increased each year since its initial documentation in the early 1990s (Levy et al., 2012). Sepsis was first defined in 1991 as a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Since this time, improvements have been made in developing a worldwide definition of sepsis (Levy et al., 2012). Specifically, sepsis is considered to be a life-threatening dysfunction of the organs that results from the dysregulation of a host response to an infectious agent (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, AACN, 2018).

Sepsis is the immune response to the body’s defense against the infection. The disease is commonly caused by bacterial infections but can also be caused by other factors and usually begins in the lungs, abdomen, or urinary tract. The virus can be spread anywhere in the body as well as enter anywhere in the body with incidents as minor as scraping your knee or nicking yourself with a bad razor. Since sepsis is so common, the risk of getting the infection is greater when people

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.