Miami EMS Offers New Prehospital Sepsis Tool

Sepsis is a clinical syndrome that complicates severe infection. It’s characterized by signs of inflammation (e.g., vasodilation, elevated white cells, capillary permeability) occurring in tissues that are remote from the infection site.  If left untreated, this response can lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome , which causes high mortality. Early identification and the institution of goal-directed therapies can improve outcomes and mitigate progression to a state of shock. Severe sepsis and septic shock are common and expensive medical emergencies. With an estimated yearly incidence of 751,000 cases (3.0 per 1,000 population) in the United States each year, severe sepsis and septic shock are associated with significant mortality and consumption of valuable healthcare resources with estimated costs of over $16.7 billion dollars annually.1­,2 Recent studies demonstrate that early diagnosis of sepsis, within the first three hours of presentation, combined with aggressive fluid resuscitation, early antibiotics administration and lactate measurements, can improve the outcomes of patients with severe sepsis.3,4           Prehospital Sepsis Project The Prehospital Sepsis Project (PSP) is a multifaceted study that aims to improve the out-of-hospital care of patients with sepsis by means of knowledge translation and enhancement of skills.5–7   Since 2005, our PSP study group has been researching sepsis in the out-of-hospital envir...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Source Type: news