Facts About Sepsis And Severe Sepsis

DEFINITION:
Sepsis is a syndrome characterized by an overwhelming systemic (whole body) response to infection, which can rapidly lead to loss of limbs, organ dysfunction, and ultimately death. The body's normal reaction to infection goes into overdrive, setting off a cascade of events that can lead to widespread inflammation and clotting. Severe sepsis is sepsis with associated acute organ dysfunction.

SYMPTOMS:
Symptoms of sepsis include reduced mental alertness, confusion, shaking, chills, fever, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in the presence of infection. Patients with sepsis rapidly get worse.

PREVALENCE:
Every year, severe sepsis strikes an estimated 750,000 people in the United States, 215,000 of whom die. The incidence of severe sepsis is expected to rise to 1 million by the end of the decade as the population ages. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in the non-coronary ICU. Severe sepsis takes more lives than breast, colon/rectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancer combined. In fact, a recent report from the CDC ranked septicemia, a form of sepsis, as the tenth leading killer in the United States. And more people die from sepsis each year than from septicemia.

CAUSES:
Sepsis can be triggered by a bacterial, viral, parasitic, or fungal infection, often the result of events such as trauma, surgery, and burns, or illnesses such as cancer and pneumonia. Researchers are unsure why some patients progress to sepsis while others do not.

COMMON TERMS:
Sepsis -- characterized by a generalized inflammatory response, which can include abnormal clotting and bleeding, in the presence of infection.

Septicemia -- sepsis that begins with a blood-borne infection.

Severe sepsis -- sepsis with associated acute organ dysfunction.

Septic shock -- severe sepsis in which the cardiovascular system begins to fail, the blood pressure drops, and vital organs are deprived of adequate blood supply.

PEOPLE AT RISK:
Sepsis can strike anyone at any age, although the elderly, hospital patients, and people with pre-existing conditions (such as trauma, burns, surgery, or cancer) may be at greater risk.

COSTS:
The estimated costs associated with the treatment of patients with severe sepsis was approximately $17 billion annually in the U.S. in 1995.

TREATMENT:
Current treatment for patients with severe sepsis consists of supportive care, including antibiotics, mechanical ventilation, or kidney dialysis, but none of these measures specifically treats severe sepsis. Many companies have tried and failed to develop an effective treatment.

#  #  #