The clinical spectrum of sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock is responsible for a growing number of deaths and excessive health care expenditures. Until recently, despite multiple clinical trials, no intervention provided a beneficial outcome in septic patients. Within the last 2 years, studies that involved drotrecogin alfa (activated), corticosteroid therapy, and early goal-directed thera...

Sepsis causes impairment of innate and adaptive immunity by multiple mechanisms, including depletion of immune effector cells and T cell exhaustion. Although lymphocyte dysfunction is associated with increased mortality and potential reactivation of latent viral infection in patients with septic shock, the relation between viral reactivation and lymphocyte dysfunction is obscure. The objectives...

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile (CD)-associated colitis (CDAC) is endemic and a common nosocomial enteric disease encountered by surgeons in modern hospitals due to prophylactic or therapeutic antibiotic therapies. Currently, the incidence of fulminant CDAC, which readily causes septic shock followed by multiple organ dysfunction syndromes, is increasing. Fulminant CDAC requires surgeons to pe...

The high mortality associated with conventionally resuscitated septic shock and the subsequent multiple-organ failure remain a very significant and costly clinical problem. Conventional simple intravenous resuscitation (CR) from septic shock often fails to restore the progressive splanchnic vasoconstriction and hypoperfusion, and fails to reverse gut-derived systemic inflammatory response and f...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of echocardiography in reducing shock reversal time in pediatric septic shock. METHODS A prospective study conducted in the pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital from September 2013 to May 2016. Ninety septic shock patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio for comparing the serial echocardiography-guided therapy in the study group with...

This study was designed to measure nitrite/nitrate and cytokine levels of serum obtained from septic shock patients and to describe potential depressant effects of human septic serum on rat cardiomyocytes. Serum was prepared from 10 non-septic patients and 10 patients with documented septic shock. Adult rat ventricular myocytes were exposed to 20 % serum in the medium. Cardiomyocyte contractili...

BACKGROUND Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is known to amplify the immune response in septic animal models. Few clinical data support this pro-inflammatory role in septic patients. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) as adjuvants in the complex therapy of sepsis has been proposed as a possible approach to eliminate elevated circulating cytokines. Since recent data suggest that MIF can ...

OBJECTIVES We sought to systematically review and meta-analyze the available data on the association between timing of antibiotic administration and mortality in severe sepsis and septic shock. DATA SOURCES A comprehensive search criteria was performed using a predefined protocol. STUDY SELECTION INCLUSION CRITERIA adult patients with severe sepsis or septic shock, reported time to antib...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether procalcitonin is a reliable diagnostic and prognostic marker in septic shock compared with nonseptic shock. DESIGN Prospective controlled trial. SETTING Intensive care unit of the Avicenne Teaching Hospital, Bobigny, France. PATIENTS All patients admitted to our intensive care unit over a 12-month period with clinical evidence of shock. INTERVENTIONS None....

The mortality from septic shock remains high despite the availability of modern critical care facilities. In recent years, new agents have been tested to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with severe sepsis. Among them, recombinant human activated protein C (rhAPC) has been reported to significantly reduce mortality and morbidity in patients with severe sepsis and one or more acute org...