BMJ  2007;335:1007 (17 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39394.644560.BE

Letters

Managing sepsis

Surviving sepsis campaign's recommendations

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

MacKenzie and Lever describe the management of sepsis in some detail.1 As one who is often responsible for the initial diagnosis and management, I find recommendations from the surviving sepsis campaign helpful. This campaign was formed in 2002 to combat worsening trends in the incidence and mortality relating to sepsis.2

This means that if a patient has two or more of the systemic inflammatory response criteria (box 1), then the six hour resuscitation bundle should be triggered (box 2). The first four steps can be carried out immediately on the ward. There has been clear evidence for the positive effect of these interventions on morbidity and mortality relating to sepsis.2 3 4


Temperature <36°C or >38°C
Respiratory rate >20 breaths/minute
Heart rate >90 beats/minute
White blood cell count <4x109 cells/l or >12x109 cells/l



1. Measure serum lactate
2. Obtain blood cultures before giving antibiotics
3. Give broad spectrum . . . [Full text of this article]


Lindsay E M Reid, foundation year 2

Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU

Lindsay.reid@nhs.net


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Management of sepsis
Iain Mackenzie and Andrew Lever
BMJ 2007 335: 929-932. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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