The fight against sepsis

7 March 2019

By Louise Ingrouille-Grove, Critical Care Outreach Sister

Five years ago, the chances are you wouldn’t have heard of sepsis.

But hard-hitting storylines in primetime shows like Coronation Street, Call the Midwife, The Archers and Holby City have changed all that.

One aspect of my role as a Critical Outreach Sister is to review the deteriorating patient, and commonly a patient deteriorates because of an underlying infection that may develop into sepsis.

Sepsis is the immune system’s overreaction to an infection or injury. It is sometimes referred to as blood poisoning, but this is actually an effect of sepsis.

Normally our immune system fights infection – but sometimes for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, it attacks our body’s own organs and tissues and can lead to organ failure and death.

As a result of greater awareness, reported incidents of Sepsis are rising between 10-13% each year, but although the condition has the potential to be life threatening, in many cases we can improve the outcome for those patients with sepsis through early recognition and treatment. There was a huge amount of coverage recently on a new rapid test for sepsis, developed by Strathclyde University, which could cut the time taken to get a result from up to 72 hours, to within three minutes. Experts hope the test will be used at the bedside in hospitals and in GP surgeries, and may be implanted and used on patients in intensive care.

Across our Trust, we detect and treat sepsis in a number of ways. Our admission areas are equipped with sepsis trolleys, which allow clinicians to immediately deliver the necessary care for a patient with suspected sepsis. Sepsis boxes have been introduced in other areas of the hospital that can quickly be grabbed, and we’re finalising plans to roll out our Sepsis PGD (Patient Group Directive), which will allow senior nurses to quickly initiate the drugs and fluids required to treat sepsis within a one hour time frame.

On a personal level, I fundraised and have created 250 cards showing sepsis warning signs and details of the care package needed to treat patients. These cards will be given to each of our emergency department staff so they always have the information to hand.

But, while great medical strides are being taken in identifying sepsis, a recent report suggested we may be able to lessen our chances of developing the condition in the first place by adopting a healthy diet. Research from a team of scientists in the US has found that eating foods low in fibre and high in fat and sugar makes you more likely to develop sepsis. While still in the early stages of investigation, the study by Stanford University and Portland State University suggests that there is something in these foods that actually alters the immune system, making it look and function differently, allowing sepsis to develop more easily.

We have long known that there is a significant correlation between nutrition and the immune system. The aim of a nutritious diet is not merely to gain energy, but also to enhance resistance against ailments. We know that deaths from sepsis have increased by a third over the last few years, and there is a belief that this may be due, in part, to an increase in the number of drug resistant bacterial infections. While we cannot overcome all of the challenges sepsis confronts us with, for now, here is proof that we may be able to help defend against it by maintaining a healthy, immune-boosting diet that is high in fibre, and low in fat and sugar.