Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2014

Journal/Book/Conference Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

9

Issue

11

DOI of Original Publication

10.1371/journal.pone.0104475

Comments

Originally published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104475

Date of Submission

November 2015

Abstract

Background

There is ample literature available on the association between both time to antibiotics and appropriateness of antibiotics and clinical outcomes from sepsis. In fact, the current state of debate surrounds the balance to be struck between prompt empirical therapy and care in the choice of appropriate antibiotics (both in terms of the susceptibility of infecting organism and minimizing resistance arising from use of broad-spectrum agents). The objective of this study is to determine sepsis bundle compliance and the appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock and its impact on outcomes.

Material

This study was conducted in the ICU of a tertiary care, private hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. A retrospective cohort study was conducted from July 2005 to December 2012 in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock.

Results

A total of 1,279 patients were identified with severe sepsis and septic shock, of which 358 (32.1%) had bloodstream infection (BSI). The inpatient mortality rate was 29%. In evaluation of the sepsis bundle, over time there was a progressive increase in serum arterial lactate collection, obtaining blood cultures prior to antibiotic administration, administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics within 1 hour, and administration of appropriate antimicrobials, with statistically significant differences in the later years of the study. We also observed a significant decrease in mortality. In patients with bloodstream infection, after adjustment for other covariates the administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy was associated with a decrease in mortality in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock (p = 0.023).

Conclusions

The administration of appropriate antimicrobial therapy was independently associated with a decline in mortality in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock due to bloodstream infection. As protocol adherence increased over time, the crude mortality rate decreased, which reinforces the need to implement institutional guidelines and monitor appropriate antimicrobial therapy compliance.

Rights

Copyright: 2014 Yokota et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Is Part Of

VCU Internal Medicine Publications

Appendix_1.docx (34 kB)
Sepsis definitions.

Figure_S1.tif (40 kB)
Flow-diagram - Cohort selection of total patients, septic shock patients and bloodstream infection.

Figure_S2.tif (37 kB)
Proportion of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock who died and sepsis bundle compliance.

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