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. 2023 Mar 9:10:1156732.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1156732. eCollection 2023.

Sepsis and infection: Two words that should not be confused

Jean-Louis Vincent  1
Affiliations

Sepsis and infection: Two words that should not be confused

Jean-Louis Vincent. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

The underlying cause of sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection, leading to multiple organ failure. Identifying sepsis is crucial because of the associated pathophysiological, practical, and therapeutic implications, which will determine where and how the patient should be managed. In the absence of an end-of-life decision to limit therapies, the patient should be admitted to the intensive care unit immediately. Importantly, not all patients with sepsis are the same and being able to better characterize them is important. The future will focus on phenotypes to characterize critically ill patients, with or without infection, to enable more appropriate targeting of therapeutic interventions.

Keywords: immune response; organ dysfunction; personalized medicine; phenotypes; septic shock.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The pyramid of severity in infection.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Factors of management of infection (small rectangle) and sepsis (large rectangle).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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