Skip Navigation
Skip to contents

ACC : Acute and Critical Care

OPEN ACCESS
SEARCH
Search
Advanced Search
mobile menu button

Articles

Page Path
HOME > Acute Crit Care > Volume 24(1); 2009 > Article
Original Article The Characteristics and Prognostic Factors of Severe Sepsis in Patients Who Were Admitted to a Medical Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Hospital
Suk Kyung Hong, Sang Bum Hong, Chae Man Lim, Younsuck Koh

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4266/kjccm.2009.24.1.28
1Department of Surgery, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
2Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. yskoh@amc.seoul.kr
  • 3,212 Views
  • 56 Download
  • 8 Crossref
  • 0 Scopus
Full Article

Download PDF Download PDF

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Severe sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in intensive care units. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence, characteristics, outcomes and prognostic factors of severe sepsis in a medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary care hospital in Korea.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical chart of 249 patients who were admitted to a medical intensive care unit with severe sepsis.
RESULTS
From January 2000 to December 2001, 3410 patients were admitted to the ICU. The prevalence of severe sepsis was 7.3%. The mortality of severe sepsis was 64.6%. The prognostic factors for severe sepsis were the number of organ systems that acutely failed (p = 0.036) and an admission route from general wards (p = 0.018). There was no difference in the outcome of severe sepsis according to infectious organisms (p = 0.24) and the site of infections (p = 0.38).
CONCLUSIONS
Severe sepsis in the MICU is a common, expensive and often fatal condition. We expect that early rescucitation and recovery from acute organ system failure will improve the outcome of severe sepsis.

Related articles
ACC : Acute and Critical Care
© The Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine.