What is Sepsis? Key Symptoms, Potential Complications, and Vital Treatment

The term sepsis describes the body's extreme response to infection. When a person suffers from sepsis, his or her immune system has been triggered in response to an infection, which causes inflammation and damages tissues in the body.

Symptoms of Sepsis

The symptoms of sepsis may include:

• Fever (102 degrees Fahrenheit or higher)
• Chills
• Rapid breathing (above 20 breaths per minute) or respiratory rate above 30 breaths per minute
• Fast heart rate (above 140 beats per minute) or pulse greater than 100 beats per minute for children, elderly people and people with low blood volume
• Confusion, disorientation or delirium.
• You can't think clearly and you're not acting normal.
• You might need to be helped with daily activities like eating or bathing because your thoughts are so fuzzy.
• It's also possible you could become agitated and combative, even toward people who care about you.
• Dizziness or feeling faint

Upon the on onset of sepsis, healthcare professionals have only hours to identify the condition and begin treatment protocol.

Complications Sepsis causes

If sepsis is left untreated or progresses to severe sepsis, it can lead to organ failure. This can include failure of the kidneys, liver, lungs and heart. If the infection is not treated and reaches this stage, it’s called septic shock. Without treatment for septic shock, one will die from multiple organ failures within minutes or hours of developing symptoms.

How Sepsis is Treated?

Sepsis is treated with antibiotics, IV fluids and other medications. As a serious medical condition, sepsis can be fatal if not treated properly.

Sepsis 1-hour Bundle

The 1-hour bundle is a set of steps that are recommended to begin upon patients showing symptoms of sepsis. The steps listed below:

1. Measure lactate level
2. Obtain blood cultures before administering antibiotics
3. Administer broad-spectrum antibiotics
4. Begin to rapidly administer 30mL/kg crystalloid for hypotension or lactate ≥4 mmol/L
5. Apply vasopressors if hypotensive during or after fluid resuscitation to maintain mean arterial pressure ≥ 65 mm Hg


This 1-hour bundle has become the standard international protocol for identifying and treating sepsis. However, the data shows that at least half of all U.S. hospitals are sitting well below 50% for sepsis CMS bundle compliance and the better ones are achieving 60% - 70% typically with inconsistent fluctuations. Achieving only 70% or even 80% on CMS sepsis bundle compliance is indefensible and treating 50%, or less, of your septic patients appropriately is untenable.

There are three keys to solving sepsis permanently. If you attack those keys correctly, you can and will solve sepsis.

• Early detection
• Early intervention
• Care delivery automation


Until health systems can figure out how to drive early intervention and timely care, they will be stuck risking lives and underperforming with CMS sepsis bundle compliance. Providing an FDA cleared communication technology that allows for bedside and remote patient monitoring, and is an end-to-end sepsis surveillance solution integrated with a hospitals communication system, is critical.

Conclusion

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that requires prompt treatment. It can cause organ failure, septic shock and even death if not diagnosed and treated properly. This deadly world-wide killer is responsible for 20% of all fatalities. The good news is there are proven protocols to reduce the rate of sepsis infections. Ambient Clinical Analytics has achieved FDA Class II Clearance, CE Marking, and ISO 13485:2016 Certification on the AWARE™ and AWARE Sepsis DART™ platform. AWARE™ provides tele-ICU or virtual-ICU remote patient monitoring along with predictive analytics. Combined with our novel clinical decision support tools we create workflow efficiencies for physicians and nurses, decrease provider fatigue, reduce errors, and save lives. Created by clinicians for clinicians, AWARE™ delivers portable real-time virtual ICU surveillance, situational awareness, and actionable information to the care team, improving outcomes and reducing costs in critical care and general inpatient areas.