New sepsis care guidelines emphasize pre-hospital testing and early intervention
The revised guidelines recommend screening high-risk patients en route to the hospital using standardized tools, and administering antibiotics early in cases of probable sepsis with low blood pressure, emphasizing cautious antibiotic use.
Drs. Hallie Prescott from the University of Michigan and Massimo Antonelli from Catholic University in Rome, Italy have co-led the first sepsis care guidelines update in five years, according to the University of Michigan.
Included in the update are suggestions for testing high-risk patients in the ambulance before they reach the hospital. 69 international experts worked on the new guidelines. Key suggestions:
Patients should be screened for sepsis risk on their way to the hospital with a standard sepsis screening tool.
If a patient has a longer ambulance ride to the hospital and is diagnosed with probable sepsis and low blood pressure, they should receive antimicrobial therapy before they arrive.
If an antibiotic is administered to a patient, it “should be more carefully considered.”
Empiric anti-fungal therapy should only be used in “rare case-by-case situations in patients are at very high risk of fungal infection.”
The authors emphasized that the updates do not cover all clinical questions and those should be the subject of future research.
