Application of the new Sepsis-3 definition in a cohort of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock admitted to Intensive Care Unit from the Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: After the publication of the new definition for sepsis and septic shock, our objective is to analyse the evolution of patients admitted to ICU with an infection process using the previous and new recommendations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a sub-analysis of a previous observational prospective study. We included 98 patients admitted to ICU from the emergency department due to infection during an 18-month period. We studied the clinical evolution during ICU admission and hospital mortality.

RESULTS: According to Sepsis-2 definition, 78% percent had septic shock and using Sepsis-3 criteria, 52%; hospital mortality was 29 and 41%, respectively. The RR of hospital mortality of septic shock was 10.3 (95% CI: 2.8-37.5) compared to patients without shock. The 30-day probability survival of patients with sepsis and septic shock were 78% and 68%, respectively (long rank < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: In our experience, the incorporation of the SOFA score and lactate levels to the new definition could help improve the evaluation of risk of hospital death.