This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue of Critical Connections.

The combined estimates of severe sepsis and sepsis amount to 50 million cases worldwide, accounting for 5.3 million deaths annually. Improvements in standards of care have decreased mortality rates since the initial publication of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines in 2004. Subsequent updates to the guidelines have culminated in the 2018 creation of the hour-1 sepsis bundle. This latest initiative provides a more pragmatic approach for obtaining blood cultures and lactate measures, administering fluids and antimicrobials, and initiating vasopressors in a timely manner. As a result, hospital mortality from sepsis is now approximately 30%.

Critical Connections, the critical care industry's only newsmagazine, provides information on cutting-edge topics in critical care useful to the entire multiprofessional team.
 Paul O'Donnell, PharmD, BCCCP, BCPS
Roshni Sreedharan, MD
Nadia Ferguson, PharmD, BCP