title: Sepsis: older and newer concepts.
abstract: Sepsis is a common complication in patients in intensive care units and a frequent reason for intensive care unit admission. Sepsis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and, without specific antisepsis therapies, management relies on infection control and organ support. For these interventions to be most effective, they must be started early, which highlights the need for all health-care workers to be aware of sepsis so that diagnosis can be made as early as possible. In this Viewpoint, we discuss some of the earlier terms used to characterise and define sepsis, and point out some of their limitations. We then introduce some aspects of new consensus definitions, proposed by an expert panel, which highlight in particular the importance of organ dysfunction. These definitions should help provide a more standardised approach to the identification of patients with suspected sepsis in both clinical practice and clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: jlvincen@ulb.ac.be.
authors.forename: Jean-Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vincent
authors.affiliation: Medical Intensive Care Unit, Cochin Hospital, Hôpitaux Universitaires Paris Centre, Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mira
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care and Anesthesiology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antonelli
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D063305:Organ Dysfunction Scores; D018805:Sepsis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018746:Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome; D009626:Terminology as Topic