Sepsis is a severe medical condition that is caused by an infection in the body that travels to the blood stream. This infection has extremely high death rates and can be linked to most admissions in the intensive care unit. There is a series of events that happens once an infection occurs in the body. These events are preventable if caught early on in this cascade.
Infection
The initial cause of all further problems is the infection. This can occur anywhere in the body. The most common sites of infection that can lead to sepsis include: urinary tract, skin, abdominal, and respiratory. These infections can occur at any time, in any population; however, there are some groups of people who are at a higher risk. These include individuals who have been diagnosed with: diabetes mellitus, renal failure, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Leon, Hoyos, Barrera, De La Rosa, Dennis, Duenas, Granados, Londono, Rodriguez, Molina, Ortiz, Jaimes, 2013). The infection is the first step in patients who go into septic shock. Performing cultures and treating this infection e...
Also, cytokines are used as they can destroy the infection, however there is a problem with this diagnosis as excessive production can cause tissue and organ damage. The pathological physiological outcomes of sepsis is that there is a multi-organ dysfunction that includes the heart, brain, kidneys and the lungs. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a condition where there is a low oxygen level in the blood, this mostly affects the lungs, people who have sepsis will be affected by ARDS as their breathing rate will decrease. Another reason for multi-organ dysfunction is that there is a lack of blood being given to the organs, this causes low blood pressure or as it’s called hypotension, this mostly affects diabetic people which leads them to having sepsis.
Unfortunately, infection places people in the hospital and infection is developed in the hospital. Two ways to contract sepsis are through hospital-caused infection, like in Amy Widener’s case, and through an infection caused by outside sources, for example a urinary tract infection in an elderly person. Everyone is capable of getting sepsis however cases appear most often in children under one year of age and in elderly older than sixty-five years. This is due to the body’s immune system being weaker in these demographics than in a person that has a built-up and strong immune system (“Sepsis Questions and Answers”). Sepsis occurs because of infection so the immune system plays a large role in the body’s defense mechanism. When people with already compromised immune systems develop an infection or are in an environment that infection is likely to occur, for example an unsanitary procedure in a hospital, then the body’s chances of being able to fight the infection off are greatly
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is a very common hospital acquired infection, especially in pediatric intensive care units, ranking as the second most common (Foglia, Meier, & Elward, 2007). It is defined as pneumonia that develops 48 hours or more after mechanical ventilation begins. A VAP is diagnosed when new or increase infiltrate shows on chest radiograph and two or more of the following, a fever of >38.3C, leukocytosis of >12x10 9 /mL, and purulent tracheobronchial secretions (Koenig & Truwit, 2006). VAP occurs when the lower respiratory tract that is sterile is introduced microorganisms are introduced to the lower respiratory tract and parenchyma of the lung by aspiration of secretions, migration of aerodigestive tract, or by contaminated equipment or medications (Amanullah & Posner, 2013). VAP occurs in approximately 22.7% of patients who are receiving mechanical ventilation in PICUs (Tablan, Anderson, Besser, Bridges, & Hajjeh, 2004). The outcomes of VAP are not beneficial for the patient or healthcare organization. VAP adds to increase healthcare cost per episode of between $30,000 and $40,000 (Foglia et al., 2007) (Craven & Hjalmarson, 2010). This infection is also associated with increase length of stay, morbidity and high crude mortality rates of 20-50% (Foglia et al., 2007)(Craven & Hjalmarson, 2010). Currently, the PICU has implemented all of the parts of the VARI bundle except the daily discussion of readiness to extubate. The VARI bundle currently includes, head of the bed greater then or equal to 30 degrees, use oral antiseptic (chlorhexidine) each morning, mouth care every 2 hours, etc. In the PICU at children’s, the rates for VAP have decreased since the implementation of safety ro...
Septic shock is a condition and/or state of hypoperfusion that derives from another condition called sepsis; Sepsis the infection of the bloodstream. In order to acquire septic shock one must obtain an infection of the bloodstream. Any type of pathogen can cause that infection. The main factor is bacteria and while fungi and viruses have been known to be able to cause septic shock the occurrence is much more rare than through bacteria.The cause of septic shock lies within
Daniels (2011) said that sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospital patient worldwide and severe sepsis causes around 37,000 deaths in the UK every year. Czura (2011) has defined it as a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection injures its own tissues and organs and sepsis can be present in any patient and in any clinical setting. Based on the learner’s reading, she became aware of the importance of identifying the early inflammatory markers such as temperature less than 36 degrees or more than 38.3 degrees, heart rate greater than 90 beats per minute (bpm), respiratory rate greater than 20 breaths/minute, altered mental state, white cell count lesser than 4g/l or greater than 12g/l and blood glucose greater than 7.7 millimoles for non-diabetic patients. Presence of any two of these will follow further test and if sepsis is indicated then commence the sepsis six care bundle within the hour, contact the doctor and critical care outreach team. The sepsis six care bundle which was developed by Daniels et al (2010) has shown to improve delivery of reliable care across a range of clinical settings which is now used in many UK
More than a quarter of all cases occur in individuals that are older than 60 years of age (Heart Valves and Infective Endocarditis, 2014). In the United States alone, national data indicated that in 2009 there were up to 28,000 hospital discharges related to IE (What is Infective Endocarditis, 2012). As stated, endocarditis occurs when germs enter the bloodstream and infect individuals who already have a weakened heart. Bacteria and germs have always existed from the beginning of time, and it today’s culture, there are more and more individuals with heart conditions that are prone to having this
1 in 3 Americans Adults are currently at risk for developing kidney disease. What is acute renal failure, when your kidneys functions all of a sudden stop working and your kidneys are the body’s filter which remove waste products and help balance water, salts and minerals especially electrolytes in your blood when your kidneys stop working you end up building all the products in your body that need to be filtered and eliminated. The pathophysiology of Acute Renal Failure are due to three main causes Pre-renal, Intra-renal, and Post renal. Pre-renal is a sudden drop in blood pressure or interruption of blood flow to the kidneys from illness or sever injury. Intra-renal is direct damage to the kidneys by inflammation of drugs, infection, toxins or reduced blood supply. Post-renal is a sudden obstruction of urine flow because of enlarged prostate bladder tumor, kidney stones, or injury.
When the first line of defense fails, the bodies second line of defense kicks in. Natural killer cells, neutrophils, macrophages, inflammation, fever and transferrin and lactoferrin kick in to eliminate microbes. These also prevent infectious diseases. Keeping infection out of the intravenous site is very important. As long as the bodies defense mechanisms are working properly and aren’t compromised, the process is made
Many great historical figures of the scientific community have written on the subject of the same perplexing disease over the centuries (Angus, van der Poll, Finfer, Vincent 2013). Sepsis has been given many names, origins, and etiologies. In the 4th century, Hippocrates declared the disease the cause of organic decomposition, wound festering, and swamp gas (Angus et al. 2013). During the 19th century, Louis Pasteur theorized the disease was the outcome of a pathogenic microorganism in the bloodstream, which resulted in a body-wide infection (Angus et al. 2013). In the 21st century, the medical community made a breakthrough with the discovery of the disease’s link to the inflammatory response system and devised a plan of action to combat the high mortality rates among those infected (Angus et al. 2013). According to Hotchkiss, Monneret, & Payen (2013) the effects of sepsis are well documented, while the molecular processes it utilizes are still being explored; however, new studies are helping to expand our understanding of the centuries old disease.
Sepsis is also called Septicemia and is a poisoning of the blood. This is an attack of bacteria into the bloodstream. Sepsis does not need blood poisoning to occur; it can affect multiple organs or the entire body without it happening. Sepsis is the body’s systematic inflammatory response to a bacterial infection (Jones, 2017). The infection can also have a wound or a chest infection or can be spread throughout the entire body. Sepsis’ definition is “a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection injures its own tissues and organs” (McClelland, 2014). Sepsis is a leading cause of hospital admissions and can lead to death in hospital patients worldwide. The death rate associated with
CLABSIs are not confined to one unit of nursing care and there are many precipitating factors that may contribute to the development of a CLABSI. Often times these lines are placed in emergent situations in the emergency department (ED) and there may be a break in sterile technique. However a study conducted by Smith, Egger, Franklin, Harbrecht, and Richardson (2011) found a higher incidence of CLABSIs among intensive care unit (ICU) patients compared to those patients whose CLs were placed either in the ED or operating room (OR). This indicates further education for ICU s...
Sepsis is defined as an exaggerated, overwhelming and uncontrolled systemic inflammatory response to an initially localised infection or tissue injury, which may lead to severe sepsis and septic shock if left untreated (Daniels, 2009; Robson & Daniels, 2013; Dellinger et al, 2013; Perman, Goyal & Gaieski, 2012; Vanzant & Schmelzer, 2011). Septic shock can be classified by acute circulatory failure as a result of massive vasodilation, increased capillary permeability and decreased vascular resistance in the body, causing refractory hypotension despite adequate fluid resuscitation. This leads to irreversible tissue ischaemia, end organ failure and ultimately, death (McClelland & Moxon, 2014; Sagy, Al-Qaqaa & Kim, 2013, Dellinger et al, 2013).
Hospital acquired infections are one of the most common complications of care in the hospital setting. Hospital acquired infections are infections that patients acquired during the stay in the hospital. These infections can cause an increase number of days the patients stay in the hospital. Hospital acquired infections makes the patients worse or even causes death. “In the USA alone, hospital acquired infections cause about 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths per year”(secondary).
The patient is a 30 year old male with an active bacterial infection on his right leg attacking his Integumentary system. The patient is from Tanzania, Africa but came back to work in a factory that produces plastic. If he has Cellulitis, it can get bad enough to travel to other organs like the Liver and Kidney and cause failure. If this happens, Edema can form, usually on one half of the body; this is the Urinary system being attacked. The main system being attacked is the Lymphatic system because Cellulitis attacks the lymphatic draining system. For Cellulitis to travel to organs, it had to go through the blood, so the cardiovascular system is also in effect.
“ Sepsis” according to the International Surviving Sepsis Campaign, is defined as the presence of infection together with systemic manifestations of infection (Dellinger et al., 2013) In todays modern society sepsis still accounts for 15% of maternal deaths a year worldwide (Dolea & Stein, 2003). Despite medical advances, aseptic technique, and antibiotic use, sepsis is the most common cause of direct maternal death in the UK. According to the CMACE report the maternal mortality rate increased from 0.85 deaths per 100,000 maternities in 2003–05 to 1.13 deaths in 2006–08 (Harper, 2011). Puerperal sepsis has a long history within obstetrics and midwifery, and yet despite this knowledge it has become, yet again, the leading cause of direct maternal death. Therefore due to the increased maternal mortality, I have chosen to focus on the care of a woman within ...