Sepsis Symptoms and Causes

Today's Wellness Wednesday is about educating people on the signs, symptoms and causes of sepsis. Yesterday, the world lost a sweet lady and beautiful soul to this condition. She had been back and forth to the doctor with signs and symptoms of what appeared to be respiratory issues after she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had surgery to remove her thyroid. She ended up going into septic shock and almost 50% of all people who get diagnosed with septic shock do not make it and my sweet friend was one of them. A beautiful soul taken too soon. May God comfort her family and bring peace and understanding to this great loss. May others take this information and use this information to make the doctors take a deeper look especially if you have an an injury, surgery, or recent hospitalization. Fly high, sweet Shelley!!!

Symptoms

Many doctors view sepsis as a three-stage syndrome, starting with sepsis and progressing through severe sepsis to septic shock. The goal is to treat sepsis during its early stage, before it becomes more dangerous.

Sepsis

To be diagnosed with sepsis, you must exhibit at least two of the following symptoms, plus a probable or confirmed infection:

Body temperature above 101 F (38.3 C) or below 96.8 F (36 C)

Heart rate higher than 90 beats a minute

Respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths a minute

Severe sepsis

Your diagnosis will be upgraded to severe sepsis if you also exhibit at least one of the following signs and symptoms, which indicate an organ may be failing:

Significantly decreased urine output

Abrupt change in mental status

Decrease in platelet count

Difficulty breathing

Abnormal heart pumping function

Abdominal pain

Septic shock

To be diagnosed with septic shock, you must have the signs and symptoms of severe sepsis — plus extremely low blood pressure that doesn't adequately respond to simple fluid replacement.

When to see a doctor

Most often sepsis occurs in people who are hospitalized. People in the intensive care unit are especially vulnerable to developing infections, which can then lead to sepsis. If you get an infection or if you develop signs and symptoms of sepsis after surgery, hospitalization or an infection, seek medical care immediately.

Causes

While any type of infection — bacterial, viral or fungal — can lead to sepsis, the most likely varieties include:

Pneumonia

Abdominal infection

Kidney infection

Bloodstream infection (bacteremia)

The incidence of sepsis appears to be increasing in the United States. The causes of this increase may include:

Aging population. Americans are living longer, which is swelling the ranks of the highest risk age group — people older than 65.

Drug-resistant bacteria. Many types of bacteria can resist the effects of antibiotics that once killed them. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria are often the root cause of the infections that trigger sepsis.

Weakened immune systems. More Americans are living with weakened immune systems, caused by HIV, cancer treatments or transplant drugs.

Risk factors

Sepsis is more common and more dangerous if you:

Are very young or very old

Have a compromised immune system

Are already very sick, often in a hospital's intensive care unit

Have wounds or injuries, such as burns

Have invasive devices, such as intravenous catheters or breathing tubes

Complications

Sepsis ranges from less to more severe. As sepsis worsens, blood flow to vital organs, such as your brain, heart and kidneys, becomes impaired. Sepsis can also cause blood clots to form in your organs and in your arms, legs, fingers and toes — leading to varying degrees of organ failure and tissue death (gangrene).

Most people recover from mild sepsis, but the mortality rate for septic shock is nearly 50 percent. Also, an episode of severe sepsis may place you at higher risk of future infections.