FREQUENCY AND SOURCE OF INFECTION IN PATIENTS WITH SEPSIS

Objective: To determine the frequency and source of infection in patients with sepsis. Patients and Methods: This one year cross sectional study was carried at tertiary care teaching hospital. The criteria for selection is any patient of ≥12 years of age, either gender admitted in ward who came under the criteria for sepsis accordingly as systemic inflammatory response syndrome due to infection as existent etiology or at least with clinical evidence of infection while the necessary specific and relevant investigations were also advised and sort accordingly whereas the blood and urine sample for bacterial culture / sensitivity was collected and sent soon to confirm the diagnosis. The frequency and percentages was calculated while the numerical statistics were used to compute mean ±SD. Results: During one year study period total fifty patients diagnosed with sepsis with the mean age ±SD for whole population was 40.84±6.85 years, of fifty individuals 28 (56%) were males and 22 (44%) were females and majority belonged to rural population (60%). The organ system dysfunction identified were coagulopathy (50%), central nervous system (40%), hepatic (38%) and renal (42%). The common source of infection detected were Respiratory tract infection (16%), urinary tract infections (16%), intravenous catheters (16%) and urethral catheterization (18%) respectively. Conclusion: The study detected higher incidence of infection with gram negative pathogen was common microorganism while the common source of infections identified urethral catheterization (18%), intravenous catheters (16%), urinary tract infections (16%) and respiratory tract infections (16%). Keywords: Sepsis, Blood culture, Source of infection & Systemic inflammatory response syndrome.