Risk factors for nosocomial nontraumatic coma: sepsis and respiratory failure

Cerebrovascular Events in Suspected Sepsis: Retrospective Prevalence Study in Critically Ill Patients Undergoing Full-Body Computed Tomography

Purpose

This study aimed at retrospectively evaluating full-body computed tomography (CT) examinations for the prevalence of cerebrovascular events in patients with suspected sepsis treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods

All full-body CT examinations, i.e., both cranial CT (cCT) and body CT including chest, abdomen and pelvis, for focus search in septic patients over a 12-months period were identified from three ICUs, using full-text search. From this retrospective cohort, we fully analyzed 278 cCT examinations for the occurrence of acute cerebral findings. All acute cerebrovascular events were independently reviewed by two blinded readers. Clinical and laboratory findings were extracted. The data were statistically analyzed using contingency tests.

Results

In our population of patients with suspected sepsis, 10.8% (n = 30/278) were identified to have major cerebral events, including 7.2% (n = 20/278) major cerebrovascular events and 4.3% (n = 12/278) generalized parenchymal damage. 13.4% (n = 22/163) of patients with a severe coma as compared with non-severe coma, 4.4% (n = 3/68), showed a major cerebral event (p = 0.04). Patients referred from the cardiology/nephrology ICU ward showed major cerebral events in 16.3% (n = 22/135), as compared with 4.9% (n = 3/61) in patients from pulmonary ICU and 6.1% (n = 5/82) major cerebral events with surgical referral (p = 0.02).

Conclusion

Our study provides further evidence that septic patients may suffer from cerebral events with relevance to their prognosis. Severe coma and the referring ward were associated with acute cerebral conditions. Full-body CT has the advantage of both detecting of septic foci and possibly identifying ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in this vulnerable patient population.

Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) and the Pattern and Risk of Sepsis Following Gastrointestinal Perforation

Background

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is characterized by systemic inflammation and tissue injury. Secondary sepsis is a common critical illness associated with poor clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk of SIRS-positive and SIRS-negative sepsis following gastrointestinal (GI) perforation.

Material/Methods

A retrospective study included 51 patients with GI perforation who had clinical evidence of sepsis, with or without SIRS. Clinical outcome was assessed at day 30 using the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) (score, 1–5) and the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) (score, 1–6) to determine organ function.

Results

Fifty-one patients were included in the study (median age, 74 years; 37 male patients); 20 patients (39.2%) developed secondary sepsis; 16 patients (80%) had SIRS-negative sepsis; four patients had SIRS-positive sepsis. An increased SOFA score was a significant independent predictor of GI perforation with sepsis (5.4±3.1 vs. 1.5±2.8) (P<0.0001). Patients with GI perforation with SIRS-negative sepsis had a significantly less favorable outcome (5/16 vs. 2/35) (P=0.03). The risk of SIRS-negative sepsis following GI perforation was 39.2%, and the risk of mortality for SIRS-negative sepsis was 31.3%. In the Cox regression analysis, septic shock and septic encephalopathy were associated with a worse clinical outcome.

Conclusions

The findings of this study support the recognition of SIRS-negative sepsis following GI perforation as an important condition to recognize clinically, given its association with increased patient morbidity and mortality.