Let's Talk Pathophysiology... of Sepsis
So I have been promising for two posts now that I would sit down and discuss the pathophysiology of sepsis.
I will start with an extremely rudimentary outline:
1) Your body becomes sick
2) Your tissues become sick due to inflammation
3) Your organs become sick due to inflammation
4) Fluid shifts everywhere it shouldn't, as does more infection
5) Organ Failure and death
Sepsis is, in its most basic form, an infection that works its way into every cell and vessel in your body, causing them to act incorrectly, leading to fluid shifts and organ failure. After organ failure meets a certain point, there is no return.
Here is Khan Academy's incredible summary of what sepsis is. It's awesome and simple and very easy to understand! I'm sure its much easier to learn it via video than read pages and pages of me typing it all out.
Back to the real-life application, though. Neglecting a potentially septic patient on arrival in the emergency department can lead to a total destruction of their bodies from the inside out, and that will lead to death or at the very least a very rocky road to recovery that could possibly include ventilators, surgery, central lines, dialysis, and weeks in the hospital. As emergency medicine healthcare professionals, we have the opportunity to prevent a lot of these outcomes from occurring if we could just check these patients out at the door for potential sepsis.
The best way to discover these patients in the ED that aren't glaringly septic are through our SIRS criteria, and when in doubt, just take extra blood for a lactic and cultures. Taking a few extra vials of blood will not harm the patient, but neglecting to discover sepsis early will.
#TimeIsTissue #BundlesWork
I will start with an extremely rudimentary outline:
1) Your body becomes sick
2) Your tissues become sick due to inflammation
3) Your organs become sick due to inflammation
4) Fluid shifts everywhere it shouldn't, as does more infection
5) Organ Failure and death
Sepsis is, in its most basic form, an infection that works its way into every cell and vessel in your body, causing them to act incorrectly, leading to fluid shifts and organ failure. After organ failure meets a certain point, there is no return.
Back to the real-life application, though. Neglecting a potentially septic patient on arrival in the emergency department can lead to a total destruction of their bodies from the inside out, and that will lead to death or at the very least a very rocky road to recovery that could possibly include ventilators, surgery, central lines, dialysis, and weeks in the hospital. As emergency medicine healthcare professionals, we have the opportunity to prevent a lot of these outcomes from occurring if we could just check these patients out at the door for potential sepsis.
The best way to discover these patients in the ED that aren't glaringly septic are through our SIRS criteria, and when in doubt, just take extra blood for a lactic and cultures. Taking a few extra vials of blood will not harm the patient, but neglecting to discover sepsis early will.
#TimeIsTissue #BundlesWork
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