18 June Sepsis, a time-dependent disease in which every second counts. LII National Congress of the SEMICYUC.
- Due to the high morbidity and mortality of sepsis, the WHO has recently urged all its member states to implement measures for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome.
- New Treatment Guidelines include updating the recommendations and their reasoning, generating a new treatment standard that is very useful for medical professionals and health systems.
- New treatments that are in the research phase may benefit a large number of patients.
- The application of Sepsis Code Its main objective is to reduce mortality from sepsis.
Madrid, Tuesday June 20, 2017. The SEPSIS is a critical ailment which occurs when the body, in response to an infection, generates an inflammatory response that, in the most severe cases, causes acute failure of other organs that were not necessarily related to the original infection, causing shock or multi-organ failure that, in a significant number of cases, it causes death.
Due to the high morbidity and mortality due to sepsis, through the resolution approved at the World Health Assembly held last month in Geneva, it is indicated to WHO should help countries develop the infrastructure, laboratory capacity, strategies and tools necessary to reduce the burden of sepsis. And to work with partners to help developing countries gain access to safe, effective and affordable treatments and quality tools for infection prevention and control, including immunization. It is because of all this the WHO has decided to intervene urging all member states to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
According to specialists every four seconds a person dies of sepsis in the world. About 25 million people are affected by sepsis each year, of which 8 million die. Very high figures, comparable to the statistics of death from stroke, cancer or myocardial infarction.
For this reason, each new advance in the study to combat sepsis is so important. Specialists in the investigation of this deadly disease have verified that the sepsis is time-dependent, and that the speed at application of the treatment is vital for patient survival. Studies show that a patient with sepsis survives the disease in 80% of cases if the treatment is applied during the first hour. After the fourth hour, the statistics say that his chance of healing is less than 50%, and after twelve hours the hope of survival is limited to a 15-20% probability.
Hence the importance of Sepsis Code, developed project by the Spanish Society of Critical Intensive Medicine and Coronary Units (SEMICYUC), and other scientific societies, and which aims to constantly improve the set of protocols and recommendations for action, in order to convert them into common methods in all Spanish hospitals to diagnose, monitor and treat sepsis under the same strategy.
"In the future we will see a more personalized medicine, there will not be a single treatment for sepsis, but each patient will be able to benefit from a specific treatment based on their immune status and other factors," comments Ricard Ferrer, Vice President of the Spanish Society of Critical Intensive Medicine and Coronary Units, who during the LII National Congress of the SEMICYUC comment on the news of the new Treatment Guidelines on sepsis that reassess hemodynamic resuscitation and review immunomodulation through blood purification, and also provide information on the new lines of research in which they are working at the moment:
- Biomarkers diagnostic.
- Pathophysiology: genomics and proteomics techniques allow a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in sepsis.
- Transmission: immunotherapy, more appropriate fluid therapy, prevention of organic dysfunction.
The cases of sepsis increase every year, and it is expected that the number will increase, since life expectancy is increasing and old age is a determining factor in this disease. That's why everyoneStudies are focused on new treatments that aim to manage immunity, with the sole purpose of reducing mortality.
“More and more is known about the long-term consequences. The new studies try not only to study the effects on mortality, but also the effects on morbidity: to reduce the stay in the ICU and in the hospital, and to improve the subsequent quality of life”, concludes the Vice President of SEMICYUC.