More training needed by doctors to spot sepsis, which claims 37,000 lives a year

Sepsis is one of the biggest, and possibly least well-known, health threats faced today.

Each year, over 100,000 patients are admitted to hospital with the condition, and around 37,000 die, which is more than the number of deaths from bowel cancer and breast cancer combined.

Sepsis, which can be set off by any viral or bacterial infection, causes the immune system to go into overdrive. Every hour that it is left untreated raises the risk of death by 8 per cent. 20% of patients that survive are left with permanent damage to organs such as the liver, lungs and the kidneys.

The condition starts with the immune system mounting normal responses to invading bacteria. Sepsis sets in when the immune system goes into overdrive and releases many more cytokines than is needed.

This is hugely damaging and causes the blood vessels to slacken and reduces blood pressure. There is widespread inflammation which causes swelling in the tissue surrounding the blood vessels. The blood clots in the smallest vessels and prevents oxygen from reaching major organs.

At this point, severe septic shock sets in. The heart cannot supply the kidneys, body cells and other organs with oxygen and the blood pressure cannot be raised.

Jon Cohen, professor of infectious diseases at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, and co-author of a paper in the journal Lancet, said “Sepsis consistently kills as many as one in three people who get prompt treatment in modern hospitals with antibiotics that should be effective.”

However, even though a massive difference could be made by effective new drugs, experts warn about the failure to get to the root of the problem. Only around one in three patients with sepsis or septic shock are receiving the basic treatment that could save their life within the safe timescale of one hour.

Dr Julian Hull, trustee of the UK Sepsis Trust, said “Doctors learn about sepsis in medical school, but they can easily miss early signs – high temperature, high pulse rate, chills, low blood pressure, confusion, light-headedness – because they mimic other disorders.”

At the beginning of this year, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, announced a national education and awareness programme targeting the public and healthcare workers, and said that hospitals that do not tackle sepsis will be penalised financially.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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