The long road home: are outcomes different for patients with sepsis?

Excerpt

Sepsis is associated with poor long-term survival and functional recovery [1‐3], including cognitive impairment, reduced activities of daily living, worsening cardiovascular disease, more hospital readmissions, and excess mortality [4, 5]. However, few studies have compared outcomes of patients with sepsis with non-septic patients who are similar with regards to admission characteristics and severity of illness. In a recent article in this journal, Thompson and colleagues report a propensity score matched analysis of patients with and without sepsis enrolled in a large, multicentre randomised clinical trial (CHEST) [6]. The original trial compared crystalloid fluid resuscitation with hydroxyethyl starch in ICU patients. Using propensity score matching, the authors aimed to explore whether ICU and hospital length of stay, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), long-term survival, and ICU and hospital costs were different between adult critically ill patients with and without sepsis [7]. They generated an impressive 1600 patients for analysis. …