Cause of Sepsis

Sepsis is a life threatening blood infection that kills millions of people. In the United States, sepsis kills more than 200,000 people every year, taking the lives of more people than from lung and breast cancer combined. In response to the 18 million people worldwide affected by sepsis each year, killing 1,400 people every day, a coalition of leading critical care specialists developed the first ever sepsis treatment guidelines that were revealed in February 2004.

The cause of sepsis is by a bacterial infection that can originate anywhere in the body. Most commonly, the infection that is the cause of sepsis will start from the kidneys, the liver, the gall bladder, the bowel, the skin or the lungs. Bacterial infections that can be the cause of sepsis can also stem from intravenous lines, surgical wounds, surgical drains and sites of skin ulcers or bedsores. The high prevalence of sepsis is attributed to many different factors, one of them being the widespread nation-wide epidemic of nursing home abuse and neglect.

There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that care for 1.6 million residents. This figure is expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. Under qualified, under trained, underpaid and understaffed nursing home workers, sometimes with previous records of abuse and/or neglect, caring for the million plus residents in need of specialized care has proved inadequate. Severe bedsores being the cause of sepsis, and sometimes death, continue to be reported among other serious violations.

Since elders are more susceptible to bacterial infections being a cause of sepsis due to worn down immune systems and the presence of other diseases and illnesses that increase their risk of developing other complications, care administered in long-term and nursing home facilities requires increased attention. New data released in December 2004 showed 100 percent of states report a decrease in the prevalence of chronic pain in nursing home patients statewide since Secretary Thompson launched the Nursing Home Quality Initiative in November 2002.

The decline in the use of physical restraints was shown in 92 percent of states, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which could affect the number of bed-ridden residents suffering from bedsores that are the cause of sepsis. Although long-term pain and use of physical restraints has declined nationally since 2002, there are still serious reports of abuse and neglect that are contributors to one cause of sepsis and do not take into account the high number of nursing home violations that go unreported.

Another cause of sepsis can be triggered by certain events like pneumonia, trauma, surgery and burns, or conditions like cancer or AIDS. Some experts believe part of the problem of sepsis is the antibiotic overuse that has created drug resistant germs, though this cause of sepsis is believed to be a smaller contributor to the bigger problem.

The guidelines are the first ever sepsis treatment guidelines, and the absence of any previous consensus about how to diagnose and treat sepsis has allowed the blood infection to progress until it reached stages that were often hard to recover from. In the guidelines, key symptoms are outlined to be looked for, including high fever, elevated heart rate and low blood pressure. Since there is still a lot of controversy on how to monitor sepsis patients, the coalition hopes the guidelines will help address differing opinions by standardizing care.

If you or someone you love has suffered, contact us for more information on the causes of sepsis!

More Information on Sepsis:

» Bacterial Sepsis
» Cause of Sepsis
» Information on Sepsis
» Intraabdominal Sepsis
» MRSA Sepsis
» Sepsis
» Sepsis Infection
» Sepsis Shock
» Sepsis Symptoms
» Sepsis Syndrome
» Sepsis Treatment
» Severe Sepsis
» Surviving Sepsis

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