This week, Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Andy Goodwin about diagnosing and treating sepsis. Dr. Goodwin is a Professor of Medicine, a pulmonologist, and Section Chief of Critical Care at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Each year, at least 1.7 million adults in the U.S. develop sepsis, which is a serious complication of an infection. Doctor Andy Goodwin is here to provide an update about diagnosing and treating this condition. Doctor Goodwin is a Professor of Medicine, a pulmonologist and Section Chief of Critical Care at MUSC. Doctor Goodwin, tell us about sepsis.
Dr. Goodwin: Sepsis is a condition that is often misunderstood in the community. When I talk about it with my patients, oftentimes they have a belief that sepsis involves something like an infection of the bloodstream or something like blood poisoning. However, in the medical community, we define sepsis as any infection affecting any part of the body that is severe enough that in the body's attempt to fight off the infection, it develops a problem with any of the organ systems. So, for example, we see patients with sepsis who can have dysfunction of the brain, of the kidneys or even of the liver.
Conner: What are the symptoms of sepsis?
Dr. Goodwin: One of the biggest challenges with sepsis is that it can present in so many different ways. You know, the sort of classic presentation is somebody who comes in with high fevers, perhaps chills or night sweats and may have a sign that localizes to the site of the infection, for instance, with pneumonia, people may have cough or shortness of breath. But a lot of our patients that we see come to the hospital with sepsis have much more insidious presentations. They may be just lethargic. They may be subtly confused or just not themselves. And unfortunately, this can present as sepsis as well and is sometimes very easy to miss.
Conner: And I understand that early diagnosis and prompt treatment of sepsis are super important. Tell us about that.
Dr. Goodwin: Studies have shown that treating sepsis as early as possible dramatically improves outcomes. In fact, most of the literature out there suggests that the mortality rate from sepsis can increase by as much as 9% for every hour of delay in effectively starting the treatment for sepsis.
Conner: What can be done, then, to identify early signs of sepsis so you can provide prompt treatment?
Dr. Goodwin: Well, first of all, educating the community on the way that sepsis can present, like we're doing now, is a really important first step. That being said, in the hospital, there are a lot of efforts using artificial intelligence and machine learning methodologies where we're developing models that are analyzing trends in vital signs and labs and other characteristics of our patients that may give us early predictors that sepsis is about to develop.
Conner: What can be done to prevent sepsis or reduce the risk of sepsis?
Dr. Goodwin: One of the best things that we can do is really try to reduce our risk of developing an infection to begin with. And so even basic things like simple hand hygiene, avoiding people who have active respiratory infections are good first steps, of course. Vaccination is another really important strategy to reduce our risk for infection. This includes things like influenza vaccine, Covid vaccine or even vaccines against bacteria such as Pneumococcus, which is a leading cause of sepsis in the United States.
Conner: Doctor Goodwin, thanks for talking with us about sepsis.
Dr. Goodwin: You're welcome. It's my pleasure. Bobbi.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
