Sepsis

Sepsis – Life Threatening Condition

Sepsis is potentially a common life threatening condition which is triggered due to an infection and the body’s immune system gets affected, setting off a series of reactions which could include widespread inflammation, blood clothing and swelling. This in turn could lead to decrease in blood pressure wherein the blood supply to vital organs like the brain, heart and kidneys get reduced.

Sepsis takes place when the chemicals release in the bloodstream in order to combat the infection, trigger inflammation responses in the body where the inflammation could result in various changes that could damage multiple organ systems leading it to failure. If not treated in time and should sepsis progress to septic shock, blood pressure drops down drastically which could lead to death. Sepsis could affect anyone though it is common and most dangerous in older individuals or with those with weak immune systems. Timely treatment of sepsis is usually treated with antibiotics together with intravenous fluids, which could improve the chances of recovery.

Sepsis – Three Stage Syndrome

As sepsis tends to get worse, the flow of the blood to vital organs like the brain, kidneys and heart gets impaired. Moreover sepsis could also lead to blood clots which form in the organs, arms, legs, fingers as well as toes, causing varying degrees of organ failure as well as tissue death – gangrene. Sepsis is viewed as a three Stage Syndrome which begins with sepsis and progress through sever sepsis to septic shock and the aim is to treat sepsis during its initial stage before it tends to get very serious.

Sepsis: To diagnose sepsis one could have at least two of these systems which comprises of body temperature above 101 F or below 96.8 F, heart rate could be higher than 90 beats a minute, probable or confirmed infection and respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths a minute.

Severe Sepsis – Diagnosis could upgrade to severe sepsis if the person shows at least one of the signs or symptoms such as abrupt change in mental status, significantly decreased urine content, decrease in platelet count, difficulty in breathing, abdominal pain and abnormal heart pumping function.

Septic shock – A person could be diagnosed with septic shock if they have signs and symptoms of extremely low blood pressure which does not responds adequately to simple replacement of fluids.

Early Diagnosis & Treatment

Sepsis which is detected and treated in its early stages and has not affected the vital organs could be possibly treated with antibiotics at home and those individuals treated at this stage tend to make a full recovery. In case of severe sepsis and people with septic shock, the need for admission to an intensive care unit – ICU may be needed where the body’s organs could be supported till the infection is being treated.

Due to the infection of vital organs in the case of sever sepsis, they are more likely to be ill and at times their condition could be fatal. Many individuals recover from mild sepsis though the mortality rate for septic shock is about 50 percent and a series of severe sepsis could leave a person at a higher risk of future infections. If sepsis is diagnosed and treated quickly, there are possibilities of being restored to normal health without lasting problems.