La Sepsi Nel Paziente Anziano: Studio Prospettico Sui Pazienti Ricoverati in Ambiente Internistico.

Sepsis is a complex clinical syndrome that has been defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. It is more frequent and severe in older subjects, at least in part because of delayed diagnosis and treatment due to low clinical suspicion and atypical manifestation.

The Sepsis-III consensus proposed the easy to use bedside clinical score quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) to identify patients at risk for sepsis and death outside intensive care units. However, some Authors have disputed this recommendation, proposting the use of other more complex bedside tools such as the National and Modified Early Warning Scores (NEWS and MEWS, respectively) for the same purpose.

Published studies on these scores included generally younger, selected subjects, not fully representative of the population at risk for sepsis.

In the present study we aimed to evaluate the incidence of sepsis in older subjects with suspected infection in a geriatric acute ward setting, to determine and compare the accuracies of qSOFA, NEWS and MEWS to identify sepsis and to investigate factors associated with in-hospital mortality.