Sepsis in Children. Topic 7 of Healthier Together with Dr Sanjay Patel

Fontanelle paediatric education

Sepsis can be deadly, but difficult to spot. Sepsis is life threatening organ dysfunction characterised by altered physiology. Capilliary leak leads to tachycardia, tachypnoea, reduced oxygen saturations, poor peripheral perfusion, reduced urine output and altered level of consciousness. Sepsis evolves quickly, but is easily confused with common viral infections, which is why we have sepsis screening tools, alerting clinicians to the possibility that this child could be septic. See http://www.sort.nhs.uk/Guidelines/Guidelines-diseases.aspx for the PIER tool developed and used by Thames Valley and Wessex, as well as SORT sepsis management pathway. For Paediatric Sepsis 6 see https://adc.bmj.com/content/99/Suppl_1/A93.2 For parent safetynetting sheets on fever, refer to www.what0-18.nhs.uk . Also worth looking at the NICE Guidelines on both Sepsis and Fever in Under 5s. This podcast explores the recognition and management of sepsis, as well as the difficult job of balancing the need to treat sepsis aggressively with trying to combat the rising use of broad spectrum antibiotics. How can we get better at managing sepsis whilst not overtreating simple viral infections? Please share and leave a review on iTunes 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Find me on Twitter @Fontanellepod . Enjoy the podcast!