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Gram-positive and Gram-negative Sepsis: Two Disease Entities?

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Intensive Care Medicine

Abstract

Sepsis and its sequelae are the leading causes of death among critically ill patients in non-coronary intensive care units (ICUs). Paradoxically, despite a fall in the mortality rate, the incidence of sepsis has increased, with about 750,000 cases annually resulting in about 215,000 deaths a year [1, 2]. This is, in part, a consequence of increased provision of intensive care facilities in the UK and elsewhere [3]. Many factors contribute to the increasing incidence of sepsis and its sequelae including improved chemotherapy for malignancies leading to greater numbers of immunosuppressed patients; more organ transplantations and cardiac surgery; and also the increased use of internal devices such as prostheses, chest drains and endotracheal tubes [3]. Moreover, 40–60% of patients with severe sepsis develop acute lung injury (ALI) or its extreme manifestation, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is associated with a particularly high mortality [4, 5].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Critical Care, Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NP, UK

    S. Leaver, A. Burke Gaffney & T. W. Evans

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  1. S. Leaver
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  2. A. Burke Gaffney
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  3. T. W. Evans
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care Erasme Hospital, Université libre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik 808, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent MD, PhD, FCCM, FCCP (Head) (Head)

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Leaver, S., Burke Gaffney, A., Evans, T.W. (2008). Gram-positive and Gram-negative Sepsis: Two Disease Entities?. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77383-4_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77383-4_37

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-77382-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-77383-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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