Introduction: Current sepsis guidelines recommend antimicrobial treatment (AT) within one hour after onset of sepsis-related organ dysfunction (OD) and surgical source control within 12 hours. The objective of this study was to explore the association between initial infection management according to sepsis treatment recommendations and patient outcome. Methods: In a prospective observational multi-center cohort study in 44 German ICUs, we studied 1,011 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock regarding times to AT, source control, and adequacy of AT. Primary outcome was 28-day mortality. Results: Median time to AT was 2.1 (IQR 0.8 – 6.0) hours and 3 hours (-0.1 – 13.7) to surgical source control. Only 370 (36.6%) patients received AT within one hour after OD in compliance with recommendation. Among 422 patients receiving surgical or interventional source control, those who received source control later than 6 hours after onset of OD had a significantly higher 28-day mortality than patients with earlier source control (42.9% versus 26.7%, P <0.001). Time to AT was significantly longer in ICU and hospital non-survivors; no linear relationship was found between time to AT and 28-day mortality. Regardless of timing, 28-day mortality rate was lower in patients with adequate than non-adequate AT (30.3% versus 40.9%, P < 0.001). Conclusions: A delay in source control beyond 6 hours may have a major impact on patient mortality. Adequate AT is associated with improved patient outcome but compliance with guideline recommendation requires improvement. There was only indirect evidence about the impact of timing of AT on sepsis mortality.

To assess shock reversal and required fluid volumes in patients with septic shock. Prospective before and after study comparing three different treatment periods. Fifty-bed single-center surgical intensive care unit. Consecutive patients with severe sepsis. Fluid therapy directed at preset hemodynamic goals with hydroxyethyl starch (predominantly 6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4) in the first period, 4% gelatin in the second period, and only crystalloids in the third period. Main outcome was time to shock reversal (serum lactate 70 mm Hg; ScvO2 8 mm Hg. Safety outcomes were acute kidney injury defined by Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss, and End-stage kidney disease criteria and new need for renal replacement therapy. Hemodynamic measures, serum lactate, and creatinine were comparable at baseline in all study periods (hydroxyethyl starch n = 360, gelatin n = 352, only crystalloids n = 334). Severity scores, hospital length of stay, and intensive care unit or hospital mortality did not differ significantly among groups. All groups showed similar time to shock reversal. More fluid was needed over the first 4 days in the crystalloid group (fluid ratios 1.4:1 [crystalloids to hydroxyethyl starch] and 1.1:1 [crystalloids to gelatin]). After day 5, fluid balance was more negative in the crystalloid group. Hydroxyethyl starch and gelatin were independent risk factors for acute kidney injury (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval 2.55, 1.76-3.69 and 1.85, 1.31-2.62, respectively). Patients receiving synthetic colloids received significantly more allogeneic blood products. Shock reversal was achieved equally fast with synthetic colloids or crystalloids. Use of colloids resulted in only marginally lower required volumes of resuscitation fluid. Both low molecular weight hydroxyethyl starch and gelatin may impair renal function.

Administrative data are used to generate estimates of sepsis epidemiology and can serve as source for quality indicators. Aim was to compare estimates on sepsis incidence and mortality based on different ICD-code abstraction strategies and to assess their validity for sepsis case identification based on a patient sample not pre-selected for presence of sepsis codes. We used the national DRG-statistics for assessment of population-level sepsis incidence and mortality. Cases were identified by three previously published International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding strategies for sepsis based on primary and secondary discharge diagnoses (clinical sepsis codes (R-codes), explicit coding (all sepsis codes) and implicit coding (combined infection and organ dysfunction codes)). For the validation study, a stratified sample of 1120 adult patients admitted to a German academic medical center between 2007–2013 was selected. Administrative diagnoses were compared to a gold standard of clinical sepsis diagnoses based on manual chart review. In the validation study, 151/937 patients had sepsis. Explicit coding strategies performed better regarding sensitivity compared to R-codes, but had lower PPV. The implicit approach was the most sensitive for severe sepsis; however, it yielded a considerable number of false positives. R-codes and explicit strategies underestimate sepsis incidence by up to 3.5-fold. Between 2007–2013, national sepsis incidence ranged between 231-1006/100,000 person-years depending on the coding strategy. In the sample of a large tertiary care hospital, ICD-coding strategies for sepsis differ in their accuracy. Estimates using R-codes are likely to underestimate the true sepsis incidence, whereas implicit coding overestimates sepsis cases. Further multi-center evaluation is needed to gain better understanding on the validity of sepsis coding in Germany.

Objectives: Perceiving nonbeneficial treatment is stressful for ICU staff and may be associated with burnout. We aimed to investigate predictors and consequences of perceived nonbeneficial treatment and to compare nurses and junior and senior physicians. Design: Cross-sectional, multicenter paper-pencil survey on personal and work-related characteristics, perceived nonbeneficial treatment, burnout, and intention to leave the job. Setting: Convenience sample of 23 German ICUs. Subjects: ICU nurses and physicians. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: A total of 847 questionnaires were returned (51% response); 778 had complete data for final multivariate analyses. Nonbeneficial treatment was in median perceived “sometimes.” Adjusted for covariates, it was perceived more often by nurses and junior physicians (both p ≤ 0.001 in comparison to senior physicians), while emotional exhaustion was highest in junior physicians (p ≤ 0.015 in comparison to senior physicians and nurses), who also had a higher intention to leave than nurses (p = 0.024). Nonbeneficial treatment was predicted by high workload and low quality collaboration with other departments (both p ≤ 0.001). Poor nurse-physician collaboration predicted perception of nonbeneficial treatment among junior physicians and nurses (both p ≤ 0.001) but not among senior physicians (p = 0.753). Nonbeneficial treatment was independently associated with the core burnout dimension emotional exhaustion (p ≤ 0.001), which significantly mediated the effect between nonbeneficial treatment and intention to leave (indirect effect: 0.11 [95% CI, 0.06–0.18]). Conclusions: Perceiving nonbeneficial treatment is related to burnout and may increase intention to leave. Efforts to reduce perception of nonbeneficial treatment should improve the work environment and should be tailored to the different experiences of nurses and junior and senior physicians.