Sepsis Rate and its Associated Factors among Patients Post-Surgery: Suggested Intervention Protocol

Abstract

Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction with high morbidity and mortalitycaused by impaired regulation of host response to infection. Because there is no confirmatorydiagnostic test, the inpatients who develop sepsis may have delays in evaluation, testing, andtreatment. Sepsis screening tools and interventional protocols based on standard criteriacanprovide a rapid method to identify sepsis and patients at risk for sepsis and organ dysfunction. Aim: Suggest sepsis interventional protocol for patients post-surgery. Design: Adescriptiveexploratory design was used. Setting: The study was carried in surgery and emergency intensivecare units at Ain Shams University hospital. Subjects: A convenient sample consisted of all thehealth team (nurses and physician) and a purposive sample of adult patients fromboth gender inprevious mentioned setting within 3 months. Tools: Two tools were used to collect data; Healthteam′ Self-administered questionnaire and Sepsis Screening Tool Results: showed that 53%ofthe studied patients had sepsis and 29% of them were had sever sepsis. In addition, there werenostatistically significant differences between health team opinion in surgery and emergencyintensive care units regarding factors associated with sepsis rate among studied patients P˃0.05with a positive correlation between total sepsis rate and total score of factors associatedwithsepsis rate among patients’ post-surgery in ICU surgery and ICU emergency Conclusion:showed that half of the studied patients had sepsis and one third of them were sever sepsis. Inaddition, there were no statistically significant differences between health teamopinioninsurgery and emergency intensive care units regarding factors associated with sepsis rate amongstudied patients with a positive correlation between total sepsis rate and total score of factorsassociated with sepsis rate among patients’ post-surgery in ICU surgery and ICUemergency. Recommendation: Provide periodic in-service training based on best practice guidelines forhealth team who work in intensive care units and emergency units regarding early detectionofsepsis and organ dysfunction.