Characteristics of patients with sepsis and multiple organ failure in the UK

Introduction

This study examined the characteristics and ICU outcome of patients admitted with severe sepsis and compared them with patients who develop severe sepsis after admission to the ICU.

Method

The Riyadh Intensive Care Program (RIP) database1989-1996 contains 28094 complete demographic data, daily APACHE II and TISS scores from 21 UK ICUs. 2790 patients retrospectively satisfied the criteria of severe sepsis and multiple organ failure.

Results

See Table.

Conclusion

The timing of development of severe sepsis and multiple organ failure appears to be an important factor for outcome with a significantly higher mortality among those admitted with sepsis. The admission APACHE II score and the score on the day of development of sepsis were lower among those who developed sepsis. This may be attributable to these patients already being in the ICU environment and thus receiving closer monitoring and more timely intervention. This finding may be of importance in the design of future trials to evaluate new treatment modalities.

1 All severe sepsis and multiple organ failure patients

2 Differences between those admitted with and those that developed sepsis