Sepsis: Dr Chris reveals how to reduce risk of infection
Sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, requires prompt diagnosis and treatment; otherwise, organ failure – and death – can occur.
The condition is notoriously difficult to detect, even though it can be life-threatening.
A new study, to be presented at this week’s European Emergency Medicine Congress in Barcelona, has claimed to have uncovered ineffective tools used for sepsis diagnosis.
There are currently four systems used to detect sepsis:
- NEWS2 (National Early Warning Score)
- qSOFA (quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment)
- MEWS (Modified Early Warning Score)
- SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome).
The researchers analysed records of care given to 221,429 patients in Germany who were treated by emergency health workers outside hospital settings in 2016.
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They found that only one in four screening tools had a reasonably accurate prediction rate of sepsis – NEWS2.
“It was able to correctly predict 72.2 percent of all sepsis cases and correctly identified 81.4 percent of negative, non-septic cases,” the study noted.
Silke Piedmont, a health scientist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Medicine in Berlin, elaborated on the findings.
Piedmont said: “We found that paramedics never documented a suspicion of sepsis.
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“And emergency services physicians rarely did so, only documenting a suspicion in 0.1 percent of cases.”
Co-author Dr Wolfgang Bauer noted that health workers were more likely to correctly identify patients of heart attacks and strokes.
Issues with diagnosing sepsis meant that 31.4 percent of sepsis patients in the study died within 30 days.
In comparison, 13.4 percent of heart attack patients died within the same time period, and so did 11.8 percent of stroke sufferers.
It must be noted that such findings have been described as observational and the findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
An NHS spokesperson stressed the NHS “is using the best screening tool available for detecting sepsis – NEWS2”.
The NHS spokesperson added: “And as professional guidance for doctors in England sets out, it is essential that any patient’s wishes to seek a second opinion are respected.”
Symptoms of sepsis, as pointed out by the NHS are:
- A high temperature (fever) or low body temperature
- Chills and shivering
- A fast heartbeat
- Fast breathing
- Feeling dizzy or faint
- A change in mental state – like confusion or disorientation
- Diarrhoea
- Nausea and vomiting
- Slurred speech
- Severe muscle pain
- Severe breathlessness
- Less urine production than normal – for example, not urinating for a day
- cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin
- Loss of consciousness.
Phone 999 or go to A&E if:
You’ve recently had an infection or injury and you have possible signs of sepsis
You think you or someone in your care has severe sepsis or septic shock
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