What is the treatment and outlook for sepsis?
In this article, we will describe what is the treatment and outlook for sepsis.
Treatment of sepsis
General treatment
The treatment is the ‘Sepsis Six ‘. This is a set of six tasks described in the ‘LABOUR’ mnemonic:
- L actate measurement
- A ntibiotics IV
- B lood cultures
- O xygen
- U rine output monitoring
- R eplace (!) IV fluids.
Specific treatment
This involves treating the underlying cause. It could include:
- Surgery for a surgical cause (e.g. perforated appendix or an abscess)
- An x-ray treatment (e.g. to drain an abscess)
- Procedure (e.g. to remove a kidney stone).
What should I do if I think I might have sepsis?
Sepsis is a medical emergency. If you or your loved one has an infection that’s not getting better or is getting worse, ACT FAST.
Get medical care IMMEDIATELY. In fact, if you are asking the question ‘Could this infection be leading to sepsis’, you should go your nearest A&E.
Who should look after you and where?
Treatment requires urgent medical care, and includes careful monitoring of vital signs. After A&E, many patients will need intensive (ICU) or high dependency (HDU) care for the first 1-2 days.
You should be looked after by senior hospital doctors called consultants (and their deputies called registrars) and experienced nurses.
What is the outlook (prognosis) for sepsis?
The overall mortality is 5-10%. But when severe, the blood pressure is very low and it is called ‘septic shock’ – and the mortality is high (40-50%).
Summary
We have described what is the treatment and outlook for sepsis. We hope it has been helpful.
