Following a ‘relaxed care bundle’ was linked to lower 30-day mortality and shorter hospital stays among children with sepsis, according to preliminary data from the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) FACTO trial.
The study findings were presented virtually at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Critical Care Congress.
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in children, with an estimated 7.5 million deaths a year. Childhood sepsis includes severe pneumonia, severe diarrhoea, severe malaria, and severe measles. Some 25-40% of children who recover from sepsis still have long-term consequences.
The ‘relaxed’ sepsis bundle is based on a group of best evidence-based interventions. It involves an initial fluid bolus delivery within 60 minutes, as opposed to 20 minutes; and antibiotic delivery within 180 instead of 60 minutes. Accepted sepsis recognition protocols (screen, huddle, or care order) were also involved with the bundle.
This trial data came from about 40 000 patients with sepsis or suspected sepsis at a range of children’s hospitals across the US, from 2017 to 2019. Raina M Paul, MD, of Advocate Children’s Hospital, Illinois, USA reported the data, saying that the relaxed bundle saw better outcomes than the more original bundle which was more time-restrictive.
Sepsis-attributable mortality fell by 48.9% among the relaxed bolus-compliant versus non-compliant group (3.1% vs 3.5%), and by 13.7% in original bundle-compliant vs non-compliant cases. Following all aspects of the relaxed bundle was associated with a reduction in median days in hospital from 9 to 6 days.
In a separate presentation, Kayla Bronder Phelps, MD, of CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Michigan, USA, reported the results of a study that showed children hospitalised for severe sepsis were likely to have longer hospital stays if they were from lower-income neighbourhoods. Using a national database, she identified 10 130 cases of children with severe sepsis. Severe sepsis hospitalisations were also highest among the lowest-income quartile, reflecting the fact that there were more children living in low-income neighbourhoods.
Overall, 8.4% of children in the cohort died of sepsis during hospitalisation, with no association between mortality rates and income level. However, children in the lowest-income areas spent a median 9 days in the hospital, while children from the highest-income areas spent 8 days.
Bronder Phelps noted that the study is among the first to examine the impact of poverty on paediatric sepsis outcomes. Poverty is a known risk factor for a wide range of paediatric diseases, such as neonatal bacterial infection, asthma, and migraine, and in adults, poverty is associated with poorer outcomes including higher mortality rates.
Source: MedPage Today
Presentation information 1: Paul R, et al “Improving pediatric sepsis outcomes for all children together (IPSO FACTO): Interim results” SCCM 2021; Abstract 32.
Presentation information 2: Phelps K, et al “The association of socioeconomic status and pediatric sepsis outcomes” SCCM 2021; Abstract 37.
