|
Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e
| Part 12. Critical Care Medicine > Section 2. Shock and Cardiac Arrest > |
Chapter 271. Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock
Sections: Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: Introduction, Further Readings.
Topics Discussed: sepsis, severe; septic shock.
Excerpt:"(See Table 271-1) Animals mount both local and systemic responses to microbes that traverse their epithelial barriers and enter underlying tissues. Fever or hypothermia, leukocytosis or leukopenia, tachypnea, and tachycardia are the cardinal signs of the systemic response, that is often called the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). SIRS may have an infectious or a noninfectious etiology. If infection is suspected or proven, a patient with SIRS is said to have sepsis. When sepsis is associated with dysfunction of organs distant from the site of infection, the patient has severe sepsis. Severe sepsis may be accompanied by hypotension or evidence of hypoperfusion. When hypotension cannot be corrected by infusing fluids, the diagnosis is septic shock. These definitions were developed by consensus conference committees in 1992 and 2001 and have been widely used; there is evidence that the different stages may form a continuum.Animals have exquisitely sensitive mechanisms for recognizing and responding to certain highly conserved microbial molecules. Recognition of the lipid A moiety of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, also called endotoxin; Chap. 120) is the best-studied example. A host protein (LPS-binding protein) binds..."
The content above is only an excerpt.
For full access, log into an existing user account below,
purchase an annual subscription, or
purchase a short-term subscription to the complete website.
|
|
|
|
Or
|
|
|
|