• Steven M Opal.
• Infectious Disease Division, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Steven_Opal@brown.edu
• Scand. J. Infect. Dis. 2003 Jan 1;35(9):529-34.

AbstractIt is generally acknowledged that severe sepsis/septic shock is a major problem in clinical medicine, yet the extent of the problem and its basic immunology remain poorly defined. The generation of accurate statistics about sepsis is confounded by the imprecise and highly variable terminology used to describe sepsis by clinicians around the world. The problem of sepsis is further complicated by the remarkably diverse spectrum of illness encompassed under the term 'sepsis'. Sepsis may range in severity from mild systemic inflammation without significant clinical consequences to multisystem failure in septic shock with an exceedingly high mortality rate. Sepsis connotes a clinical syndrome that may occur in any age group, in markedly different patient populations, and in response to a multitude of microbial pathogens from multiple different anatomical sites within the human body. A concerted effort has been made to standardize definitions of sepsis by the use of international committees and consensus opinions from panels of experts in sepsis research. While consensus definitions of sepsis have proven to be of value, the lack of uniformity in interpretation of these definitions continues to be problematic by clinicians and basic researchers alike. Recently, a new conceptual framework for understanding sepsis has been developed, called the PIRO concept (predisposition, infection, response and organ dysfunction). This has been conceptually modeled from the TNM classification (tumor size, nodal spread, metastases) which has been successfully used in defining treatment and prognostic indicators in clinical oncology. Further refinements in the definitions and predisposing factors of severe sepsis should improve the understanding and management of severe sepsis and septic shock in the near future.

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