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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffMany doctors view sepsis as a three-stage syndrome, starting with sepsis and progressing through severe sepsis to septic shock. The goal is to treat sepsis during its mild stage, before it becomes more dangerous.
Sepsis
To be diagnosed with sepsis, you must exhibit at least two of the following symptoms:
- Fever above 101.3 F (38.5 C) or below 95 F (35 C)
- Heart rate higher than 90 beats a minute
- Respiratory rate higher than 20 breaths a minute
- Probable or confirmed infection
Severe sepsis
Your diagnosis will be upgraded to severe sepsis if you also exhibit at least one of the following signs and symptoms, which indicate an organ may be failing:
- Significantly decreased urine output
- Abrupt change in mental status
- Decrease in platelet count
- Difficulty breathing
- Abnormal heart pumping function
- Abdominal pain
Septic shock
To be diagnosed with septic shock, you must have the signs and symptoms of severe sepsis — plus extremely low blood pressure that doesn't adequately respond to simple fluid replacement.
When to see a doctor
Most often sepsis occurs in people who are hospitalized. People in the intensive care unit are especially vulnerable to developing infections, which can then lead to sepsis. If you get an infection, or if you develop signs and symptoms of sepsis after surgery, hospitalization or an infection, seek medical care immediately.
- Sepsis fact sheet. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Publications/factsheet_sepsis.htm. Accessed Oct. 24, 2012.
- Marx JA, et al. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?about=true&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..X0001-1--TOP&isbn=978-0-323-05472-0&uniqId=230100505-57. Accessed Oct. 25, 2012.
- .Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2012. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/191371208-2/0/1492/0.html#. Accessed Oct. 25, 2012.
- Chang HJ, et al. Patient page: Sepsis. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2010;304:1856.
- About sepsis. Society of Critical Care Medicine. http://www.survivingsepsis.org/Introduction/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed Oct. 25, 2012.
- Antonelli M, et al. Year in review in Intensive Care Medicine 2011. II. Cardiovascular, infections, pneumonia and sepsis, critical care organization and outcome, education, ultrasonography, metabolism and coagulation. Intensive Care Medicine. 2012;38:345.
- Skrupky LP, et al. Advances in the management of sepsis and the understanding of key immunological defects. Anesthesiology. 2011;115:1349.
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