Septic shock

Introduction Sepsis is a serious infection of the blood or tissues that affects the whole body. Septic shock is the final, most serious stage of this infection. It is a medical emergency and requires immediate treatment. What are the causes? Septic shock is caused by a drop in blood pressure. The drop keeps your organs from getting enough oxygen, causing them to fail. What increases the risk? You are more likely to develop this condition if: You are very young or elderly. You have AIDS or…

from early infection and bacteraemia to severe sepsis and septic shock (1). Sepsis can ultimately result in multiple organ failure and death, and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Sepsis has a high mortality rate. In excess of 3000 Australians die of sepsis annually – a rate higher than the annual national road toll (3). In one study, the mortality associated with sepsis was over 10%, whilst mortality from septic shock surpassed 40% (2). Whatsmore, for each hour of delay in…

pre-hospital recognition, management, and treatment can make a profound difference in a septic patient’s outcome. While bacteria accounts for most of the cases,…

Sepsis is the leading cause of death for hospitalized patients. It is estimated, that 1.6 million hospitalized patients are treated for sepsis annually. Sepsis is the leading cause of hospital mortality, and has an associated cost of 400 billion dollars per year in the United States (Lopez-Bushnell, Demaray, & Jaco, 2014, p.9). Sepsis is characterized as an overwhelming infection in the body that disrupts homeostasis by causing profound inflammation and a cascade of symptoms that leads to…

I assisted one of the doctors with thoracentesis in the ICU on a twenty-eight-year-old drug user who went through septic shock. He was the same age as me. His whole body was swollen and he was unconscious, hooked up to machines. Knowing that about one third of people die from septic shock made me nervous. His pleural effusion was nearly black, I have never seen it that color before. During the procedure, I noticed pictures on the wall of him as a young boy at the lake on a summer day, excited…

SHOCK Salve Aguilar West Coast University Pathophysiology Dr. Isabelle Tardif July 17, 2015 Abstract The case identifies the type of shock that CC encountered right after his traumatic accident. He was experiencing hypovolemic shock as evidenced by low blood pressure and increased heart rate. To increase his cardiac output, fluid therapy was initiated. However, due to CC’s multiple abrasions sustained from the accident, and invasive lines attached to him, it placed him at risk for…

Sepsis and What I Would Change from Current Practice Sepsis is one of the world's leading healthcare problems, which is more prevalent than cardiac arrest. The condition strikes approximately 30 million people worldwide annually. The majority of the victims either end up dying or suffering permeant health problems. The condition is still on record for claiming more lives compared to other deadly illnesses such as cancer, especially in less developed economies (Jawad, Luksic, & Rafnsson…

Case Study 5 – AB As discussed in case 3, septic shock results from widespread inflammation and vasodilation in response to an infection. Norepinephrine is useful in septic shock because it increases afterload to maintain adequate tissue perfusion (De Becker et al., 2012). Dobutamine is an inotropic drug used in septic shock as it stimulates myocardial beta-adrenergic receptors thus increasing cardiac output by increasing contractility and heart rate (Dellinger et al., 2013; Enrico et al.,…

The death of Savita Halappanavar in University Hospital Galway in 2012 highlighted sepsis as a patient safety issue in urgent need of addressing. In 2014, Minister for health , Leo Varadkar published 3 sets of clinical guidelines dealing with patient safety issues, one being sepsis (Cullen, P.2014). The sepsis management clinical guidelines provide health care professionals with a diagnosis and treatment framework to be followed. It outlines the diagnostic criteria, a diagnostic tool (EWS),…

experiment a Slight shock of 45V is administered to the participant in order to show him what the Learner will be experiencing and to further portray the experiment as authentic (Milgram, 1963). However, the participant is not aware that this will be the only real shock in the experiment. The confederate will not be shocked because he is an actor in the situation (Milgram, 1963). He does act as if being shocked, however. In the Voice Feedback condition the Learner starts to react to the shocks…