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Table 4 Treatment variables and relevant clinical outcomes per PIRO category as a function of timing of antibiotics

From: The association between time to antibiotics and relevant clinical outcomes in emergency department patients with various stages of sepsis: a prospective multi-center study

  Antibiotics <1 hour (reference category) Antibiotics 1–3 hours Antibiotics >3 hours
PIRO 1 to 7 (N = 413) n = 101 n = 211 n = 101
ED treatment    
Number of SSC goals achieved, mean (SD) (9) 3.3 (1.0) 3.7 (0.9) 2.7 (0.9)
Time to antibiotics (minutes), median (IQR) (1) 41 (32–51) 110 (85–141) 295 (216–516)
Initial antibiotics appropriate, n (%) (11) 84 (84) 182 (86) 73 (72)
Administered fluids (L), median (IQR) 1.0 (0.5-1.5) 1.0 (0.5-1.5) 0.5 (0.5-1.0)
Administered oxygen (L/min), median (IQR) (53) 2.0 (0.0-3.0) 0 (0.0-3.0) 0 (0.0-3.8)
Disposition/outcomes    
MCU/ICU admission, n (%) (18) 7 (7) 7 (209) 2 (2)
Total hospital LOS (days), median (IQR) 5 (3–8) 4 (2–8) 6 (3–12)
Number of surviving days outside hospital at day 28, median (IQR) 23 (20–25) 23 (19–26) 21 (15–25)
28-day mortality, n (%) (7) 2 (2) 4 (2) 4 (2)
PIRO 8 to 14 (N = 532) n = 217 n = 249 n = 66
ED treatment    
Number of SSC goals achieved, mean (SD) (9) 3.7 (1.1) 3.7 (0.9) 3.0 (0.9)
Time to antibiotics (minutes), median (IQR) (1) 38 (24–48) 102 (78–133) 243 (201–367)
Initial antibiotics appropriate, n (%) (11) 166 (76) 183 (73) 50 (76)
Administered fluids (L), median (IQR) 1.0 (0.5-1.6) 1.0 (0.5-1.5) 1.0 (0.5-1.5)
Administered oxygen (L/min), median (IQR) (53) 2.0 (1.0-5.0) 3.0 (0.0-5.0) 3.0 (0.0-5.0)
Disposition/outcomes    
MCU/ICU admission, n (%) (18) 29 (13.4) 23 (9) 2 (3)
Total hospital LOS (days), median (IQR) 6 (4–10) 6 (3–9) 5 (3–9)
Number of surviving days outside hospital at day 28, median (IQR) 21 (15–24) 22 (14–24) 22 (18–25)
28-day mortality, n (%) (7) 20 (3) 26 (10) 4 (6)
PIRO >14 (N = 223) n = 113 n = 87 n = 23
ED treatment    
Number of SSC goals achieved, mean (SD) (9) 4.0 (1.1) 3.8 (1.0) 3.0 (0.7)
Time to antibiotics (minutes), median (IQR) (1) 33 (23–33) 95 (81–126) 295 (218–499)
Initial antibiotics appropriate, n (%) (11) 81 (74) 61 (70) 18 (78)
Administered fluids (L), median (IQR) 1.0 (0.5-2.0) 1.0 (0.5-1.6) 0.6 (0.5-1.5)
Administered oxygen (L/min), median (IQR) (53) 5.0 (2.0-10.0) 3.0 (2.0-10.0) 3.0 (1.5-5.0)
Disposition/outcomes    
MCU/ICU admission (18) 33 (29) 15 (17) 4 (17)
Total hospital LOS (days), median (IQR) 7 (5–13) 8 (3–12) 7 (3–8)
Number of surviving days outside hospital at day 28, median (IQR) 18 (0–22) 17 (4–22) 20 (3–23)
28-day mortality, n (%) (7) 26 (23) 21 (24) 5 (22)
  1. Data are presented as mean (SD) if normally distributed or as median (IQR) if rightly skewed. Categorical data are presented as number (%). Missing values are shown in bold between brackets for every variable.
  2. ED, Emergency Department; ICU, Intensive Care Unit; IQR, interquartile range; LOS, Length of Stay; MCU, Medium Care Unit; PIRO, Predisposition, Infection, Response, and Organ failure; SD, standard deviation; SSC, Surviving Sepsis Campaign.
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Critical Care

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