- Poster presentation
- Open Access
An audit of awareness about maternal sepsis in a UK district general hospital
- Published: 27 October 2011
Keywords
- Severe Sepsis
- Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome
- Maternal Mortality
- Survive Sepsis Campaign
- Genital Tract Infection
Introduction
The UK national body, which reviews maternal mortality (Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE)), has recently published their 2006 to 2008 report. This highlighted an increase in maternal sepsis, making it the leading cause of direct death amongst peripartum women in the UK (26 out of a total 107 direct deaths) [1]. The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) published updated sepsis resuscitation and management bundles in 2008 [2]. We decided to audit awareness about sepsis amongst staff caring for perpartum women.
Methods
A questionnaire was devised and distributed to midwives, obstetricians and anaesthetists. This asked the criteria for the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), common sites of maternal sepsis, the initial duties of care ('sepsis six' resuscitation bundle: delivery of oxygen, intravenous fluids, intravenous antibiotics, taking of blood cultures, measurement of plasma haemoglobin, lactate and urine output) and recognition and management of severe sepsis.
Results
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Conclusion
It is all of our responsibilities to focus efforts on the emerging threat of maternal sepsis as highlighted by CMACE. Historically, we have seen a significant improvement in maternal mortality rates when specific interventions have targeted those issues raised in previous CMACE reports (for example, venous thromboembolism). We therefore propose to develop local clinical guidelines, posters and factsheets with formal teaching sessions and multidisciplinary simulator workshops to raise awareness, optimise care and minimise preventable deaths from maternal sepsis. We will re-audit awareness in 6 months time to complete the audit cycle.
Authors’ Affiliations
References
- Cantwell R, Clutton-Brock T, Cooper G, et al.: Saving mothers lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006-2008. The Eighth Report of the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom. BJOG 2011,118(Suppl 1):1-203.PubMedGoogle Scholar
- Dellinger RP, Levy MM, Carlet JM, Bion J, Parker MM, Jaeschke R, Reinhart K, Angus DC, Brun-Buisson C, Beale R, et al.: Surviving sepsis campaign: international guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock: 2008. Crit Care Med 2008, 36: 296-327. 10.1097/01.CCM.0000298158.12101.41View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
Copyright
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.