ABSTRACT
Sepsis is a complex syndrome with a very high mortality; patients who develop septic shock have a mere one in two chance of survival. As a result, there is a huge drive toward early recognition and prompt treatment of sepsis. Essentially, sepsis is a severe generalized response to an infective process. This response was defined in 2001 as the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), which has added diagnostic clarity to a process that was traditionally quite hard to define. SIRS usually occurs in the context of infection but may also be triggered by non-infective causes: burns, trauma. Patients are classed as having SIRS if they have two or more of the following: Body temperature of more than 38°C or less than 36°C, Heart rate of more than 90 beats per minute. Respiratory rate of more than 20 breaths per minute or arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) of less than 32mmHg.
