Pediatrics & Therapeutics
Open Access

Abstract

Diagnosis, Management and Outcome of Sepsis at Benghazi Children Hospital (1 Year Review)

Halima Mohamed Benamer, Amira Alajili Alsaiti, Mabroka Bofarraj, Huda Abud and Rania M Tip

Background: Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection, and it comprise a spectrum of disorders that result from infection.

Objective: To illustrate our local experience with sepsis.

Patients: All patients (age more than one month) who admitted to Benghazi children hospital diagnosed as sepsis.

Sitting: All medical departments of the hospital except nursery.

Study period: From January to December 2013.

Study design: Retrospective observational study.

Method: Data collected from admission files and analyzed.

Results: Total number of patients included was 58, 42 (72%) patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for sepsis and 16 (28%) wasn’t. We studied the 42 patients who diagnosis of sepsis justified, 52% were males and 48% were females. Duration of admissions ranges from 5 to 34 days with a mean of 11 days. Age distribution showed that 54% of cases were 6 months or less and 76% of patients below one year. There were seasonal variation in admissions 40% of admissions in winter, 31% in spring, 20% autumn and 9% in summer. Most common complaints were fever (88%), cough (38%), diarrhea (35%), and vomiting (28%). The most common causative organism according to blood culture results were streptococci (47%) then E. coli (26%). 5 patients (12%) diagnosis was sepsis without clear underlying cause and 37 (88%) with defining cause, the most common presentation was pneumonia and gastroenteritis (19%) each. 64% of patients received a combination of antibiotics. 7 patients (17%) died.

Conclusion and recommendation: Twenty eight percent of our patients who treated as sepsis were not fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for sepsis. The overall outcome was intermediate. But unreliable blood culture results expose our patients to the risk of combined antibiotics therapy increasing side effect and drug resistant. We recommend application of sepsis diagnostic criteria and to limit overuse of combination of antibiotics.