Septic Shock — Evaluating Another Failed Treatment

Sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock are progressively severe stages of the host's systemic inflammatory response to infection.1 The latter stages carry increasing rates of end-organ failure and death. The spectrum of the sepsis syndrome remains a leading cause of death in the United States, and early intervention with appropriate antibiotics (matching the antibiogram susceptibilities to the drugs administered) saves lives. Specific to septic shock, a large retrospective cohort study involving 2731 adults in 14 critical care units showed an absolute decrease of 7.6 percentage points in the survival rate for each hour of delay in antimicrobial administration from the . . .