Korean J Crit Care Med.  2009 Apr;24(1):28-32. 10.4266/kjccm.2009.24.1.28.

The Characteristics and Prognostic Factors of Severe Sepsis in Patients Who Were Admitted to a Medical Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Hospital

• Hong SK
• Hong SB
• Lim CM
• Koh Y

• KMID: 2228368
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2009.24.1.28

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Severe sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence, characteristics, outcomes and prognostic factors of severe sepsis in a medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary care hospital in Korea.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical chart of 249 patients who were admitted to a medical intensive care unit with severe sepsis.
RESULTS
From January 2000 to December 2001, 3410 patients were admitted to the ICU. The prevalence of severe sepsis was 7.3%. The mortality of severe sepsis was 64.6%. The prognostic factors for severe sepsis were the number of organ systems that acutely failed (p = 0.036) and an admission route from general wards (p = 0.018). There was no difference in the outcome of severe sepsis according to infectious organisms (p = 0.24) and the site of infections (p = 0.38).
CONCLUSIONS
Severe sepsis in the MICU is a common, expensive and often fatal condition. We expect that early rescucitation and recovery from acute organ system failure will improve the outcome of severe sepsis.

Keyword

infection; organ failure; severe sepsis

MeSH Terms

Humans
Critical Care
Intensive Care Units
Patients' Rooms
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies
Sepsis
Tertiary Care Centers
Tertiary Healthcare