The following is a summary of “Real-World Implications of Updated Surviving Sepsis Campaign Antibiotic Timing Recommendations,” published in the February 2024 issue of Critical Care by Taylor et al.
Researchers performed a retrospective analysis to assess the real-world impact of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign’s (SSC) updated guidelines on antibiotic timing in sepsis patients.
They treated 166,559 adult hospitalized patients in the emergency department for suspected severe infection. Assessing patients impacted by revised SSC guidelines for starting antibiotics based on a stratified risk and probability approach.
The results showed that using an infection prediction model with a cutoff of 0.5, 30% of patients with suspected infection were eligible for the new 3-hour antibiotic recommendation, with a median time to antibiotics of 5.5 hours (IQR, 3.2-9.8 hours) and a low mortality rate of 2%. Patients with probable infection but no shock had a median time to antibiotics of 3.2 hours (IQR, 2.1-5.1 hours) and a mortality rate of 3%. Patients with probable infection and shock had a median time to antibiotics of 2.7 hours (IQR, 1.7-4.6 hours) and a mortality rate of 17%. Patients with possible infection and shock had a median time to antibiotics of 6.9 hours (IQR, 3.5-16.3 hours) and a mortality rate of 12%.
Investigators concluded that data confirm recent SSC guideline updates, emphasizing tailored antibiotic timelines according to risk and probability strata. Empirically, findings suggest avoiding strict 1-hour targets for non-shocked patients with merely possible sepsis.
Source: journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/abstract/9900/real_world_implications_of_updated_surviving.297.aspx