Sepsis News

In Memory Of...

It seems like yesterday that our healthy 23 year-old daughter, Erin, entered the hospital for elective surgery. Five days later she was gone. A victim of Sepsis.

Read Erin's Story

Sepsis News

10/23/08

CDC Advisory Panel Votes to Update Pneumococcal Vaccination Recommendations.

http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/919167.html
Children who have sickle cell disease or have had a splenectomy are at increased risk for fulminant pneumococcal sepsis associated with high mortality.

10/22/08

Staph Infection Symptoms.

http://www.healthhype.com/staph-infection-symptoms.html

10/22/08

Propofol Associated with Increased Infections in Critically Ill Patients: Presented at ASA

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852571020057CCF6852574E9006957D9
Propofol is a short-acting intravenous sedative agent used for the induction of general anesthesia for adults and children, maintenance of general anesthesia, and sedation in medical contexts, such as intensive care unit (ICU) sedation for intubated, mechanically ventilated adults, and in procedures such as colonoscopy. It provides no analgesia.^[1] Yet in some studies, when patients receive propofol compared to inhalation agents for anesthesia, postoperative pain is less after propofol.^[2] Propofol is approved for use in more than 50 countries.

9/23/08

Late Diagnosis of Celiac Disease Increases Risk of Sepsis.

http://www.celiac.com/articles/21645/1/Late-Diagnosis-of-Celiac-Disease-Increases-Risk-of-Sepsis/Page1.html

9/10/08

Magnetic Resonance Imaging ? An Effective Technique in Diagnosing Gall Bladder Ascariasis .

9/9/08

Woman found guilty of murder in daughter’s death.

http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20080908/ARTICLES/809080279/1053/sports
“The autopsy took some extended time to complete,” Brown said. Nicole’s cause of death was determined to be the result of complications from traumatic injury and sepsis.

9/8/08

Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/trifonbabiev/post84361086/
Death, when it occurs, isusually due to overwhelming sepsis.

9/8/08

How the Brain and Immune System Comunicate.

http://notesdisplayed.livejournal.com/31166.html
Every year, about 500000 people develop severe sepsis, a syndrome triggered when the body's immune system wages an attack on the body that is well beyond its normal response to an invader. Sepsis kills about 225000 deaths in the United ...

9/8/08

Definitions for the Terms Bacteremia, Sepsis, Severe Sepsis, Septic Shock, and Other Related Disorders.

http://www.medicalcriteria.com/criteria/uti_sepsis_def.htm

Related Criteria

Diagnostic Criteria for Sepsis

Diagnostic Criteria for Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC)

Diagnostic Criteria for Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)

More...

9/6/08

Intra-Abdominal Sepsis Following Pancreatic Resection.

intraabdominal_sepsis_following_pancreatic_resection_incidence_risk_factors_diagnosis_microbiology/
Intra-abdominal sepsis (IAS) following pancreatectomy is associated with the need for therapeutic intervention and may result in mortality.

9/6/08

FDA Safety Changes: Mirena, Zyvox, Orencia.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/580101
On May 28, the FDA approved safety labeling revisions for a long-acting levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine contraceptive system (Mirena; Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc) to provide updated information regarding the risks for ectopic pregnancy, sepsis, perforation, ovarian cysts, and breast cancer.

9/4/08

Neonatal Meningitis.

http://neonatalicu.blogspot.com/2008/09/meningitis-neonatal.html
Neonatal meningitis is inflammation of the meninges due to bacterial invasion in the 1st 90 days of life. Neonatal meningitis most frequently results from the bacteremia that occurs with neonatal sepsis.

9/3/08

New Developments in Antimicrobial Use in Sepsis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18691102?dopt=Abstract
Over the past decade, trends in antimicrobial resistance, epidemiology, and drug development have occurred that affect both the empiric and definite selection of antimicrobials in the septic patient.

9/2/08

Current role of activated protein C therapy for Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock.

http://www.docguide.com/news/
Xigris is the only FDA approved drug for Severe Sepsis.

8/28/08

Healthcare Associated Infections — Aren't New.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-difficile/DS00736
Illnesses you acquire during a stay in a hospital or longterm care facility — aren't new. But in recent years, the infections have reached epidemic proportions in hospitals and nursing homes around the world. One of the most widespread and potentially serious of these illnesses is caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile, often simply called C. diff or C. difficile.

8/28/08

Dog, Cat and Human Bites.

http://chineseviolin.blogspot.com/2008/08/bites.html
Human bite infections may be complicated by cellulitis, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and sepsis. The thin skin overlying the metacarpophalangeal joints of the hand provides little protection for the underlying structures.

8/28/08

Neonatal Sepsis.

http://assets.aarp.org/external_sites/adam/html/1/007303.html
Neonatal sepsis is a blood infection that occurs in an infant younger than 90 days old. Early-onset sepsis is seen in the first week of life. Late-onset sepsis occurs between days 8 and 89.

8/27/08

MRSA Superbug Invades Public Schools.

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/browse_thread/thread/e32df6d71c3a182c/2b64546ed2a986ce?hl=en&q=severe+sepsis#2b64546ed2a986ce
Has some good info on MRSA, but rejects Western Medicine?

8/27/08

Sepsis Experts Disagree on Treatment!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121979587111074799.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
A widely accepted therapy used by hospitals in treating patients with sepsis and other critical illnesses might not be helping these people, and could even be harming them, new evidence suggests.

8/24/08

Hospitals Help Reduce Deaths from Sepsis Using Microsoft .

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=b658b87b-79ce-4969-bf4d-796358b55e68
Sutter Health internal developers created an electronic forms based solution using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, Microsoft Office SharePoint ...

8/24/08

Blacks Twice as Susceptible and More Likely to Die of Severe Sepsis Than Whites.

http://artofthepossibleonline.com/2008/08/blacks-twice-as-susceptible-and-more.html
What is more, blacks die more frequently of severe sepsis that either whites or Hispanics.

8/23/08

Mortality Goes Up as Nursing Staff Goes Down

http://www.safestaffingsaveslives.org/
Nurse staffing is important! Find out how you can become involved and protect your patients/ loved ones, by visiting the ANA's Safe Staffing Saves Lives website. In a previous study, Perberdy, et al. found that survival from cardiac arrest worse on nights and on weekends. They concluded that mortality increased as staffing levels decreased. I ( the SA founder ) submit this applies to sepsis victims also.

8/21/08

Magnetic Resonance Imaging ? An Effective Technique in Diagnosing Gall Bladder Ascariasis .

http://gallbladdersurgery.cosmeticsurgerypreview.com/gall-bladder-surgery/magnetic-resonance-imaging-an-effective-technique-in-diagnosing-gall-bladder-ascariasis-2
In the absence of appropriate medical treatment, biliary tract ascariasis can further lead to serious complications such as cholecystitis, pancreatitis, sepsis (severe infection of the internal organs) and jaundice (inappropriate functioning of the hepatic system).

8/16/08

Kidney Stones are a Common Problem.

http://share-mythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/08/kidney-stones-very-common-problem-these.html
When urine is infected and cannot drain, it acts like an abscess and can spread the infection throughout the body (sepsis).

8/15/08

Celiac Disease is Associated with an Increased Risk of Sepsis.

http://www.medicalgeek.com/internal-medicine/12406-celiac-disease-associated-increased-risk-sepsis.html

Several factors may predispose to an increased tendency of severe infection in celiac disease.

8/15/08

Muddy Rivers!

http://symtym.com/2008/08/muddy-rivers/
There’s a challenge to Rivers‘ EGDT.

8/15/08

New Therapy for Sepsis Infections Raises Hope, but Also Many Questions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121867179036438865.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Seven years ago, doctors got some hopeful news about sepsis, a fast-moving bloodstream infection that kills four million people a year world-wide. The research is in question now!

8/7/08

What is C-Diff or Clostridium Difficile?

http://www.medicinenet.com/clostridium_difficile_colitis/article.htm
Antibiotic-associated (C. difficile) colitis is an infection of the colon caused by C. difficile that occurs primarily among individuals who have been using antibiotics. It is the most common infection acquired by patients while they are in the hospital. As with any infection, it can lead to sepsis.

8/7/08

Gut Flora

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.health/browse_thread/thread/5a6d7ccf0f6f6fc1/372d15a40770f4a9?hl=en&q=severe+sepsis#372d15a40770f4a9
Bacteria in the digestive tract have pathogenic properties in addition to their health-inducing ones: they can produce toxins and
carcinogens and have been implicated in such conditions as
multisystem organ failure, sepsis, colon cancer, and IBD.

8/7/08

Newly Identified Genetic Deficiency in Children Illuminates Immune System Breakdown

http://www.hhmi.org/news/casanova20080731.html
Children with meningitis and other serious infections need swift treatment with antibiotics to survive, but physicians have not been able to figure out why the same microbe causes some children to get seriously ill with possible sepsis and not others.

8/2/08

What is Salmonella?

http://www.salmonellablog.com/2008/08/articles/salmonella-information/what-is-salmonella/

Salmonella is a bacterium that causes one of the most common intestinal infections in the US. One complication of this is sepsis.

8/2/08

Endocarditis prophylaxis no longer advised for most cases of valvular heart disease.

http://www.medicexchange.com/news.aspx/14743/Endocarditis-prophylaxis-no-longer-advised-for-most-cases-of-valvular-heart-disease

Antibiotic therapy is however considered reasonable in high-risk patients with infections of the GI or GU tract, to prevent wound infection or sepsis. The over use of antibiotics leads to drug resistant strains that can make sepsis harder to treat.

8/1/08

You can normally live without a Gallbladder.

http://infoqueenbee.blogspot.com/2008/08/you-can-normally-live-without.html

Fortunately, severe pancreatitis due to gallstones is rare. Howevere, sepsis can be a complication of gall stones.

7/31/08

Spleen is Key Player in Brain's Infection-Fighting Messages.

http://www.healthexperiment.com/2008/07/25/spleen-key-player-in-brains-infection-fighting-messages.html

Understanding this process could lead to the development of new treatments that prompt the spleen to send the right messages to the immune system when fighting infections and possibly some autoimmune diseases. We are especially proud of our Alliance partner, the Feinstein Institute lead by Dr. Kevin Tracy for this important discovery.

7/29/08

Gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis sometimes is followed by pneumonia. Rare complications of gastroenteritis caused by bacteria include sepsis (treated with antibiotics), anemia, renal (kidney) failure, arthritis, and new onset of irritable bowel syndrome. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroenteritis

7/29/08

The World of Strange and Dangerous Diseases: MRSA.

http://timsmedblog.com/?p=14

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. It is just another bacterium that is harder to treat, but is treatable if caught early. What is not mentioned in news releases is that people who die from MRSA, die from sepsis.

7/25/08

Our new site.

Thank You for your patience as we continue to up load the new site. Sepsis is a global health problem that takes millions of lives every year. No one is safe from it and we all need to be engaged and knowledgeable as to this, " Blanket of Death". This area will have links to current news about all aspects of sepsis, including some case studies.