Photo Credit: Naeblys
Half of all patients with sepsis admitted to an ED died within 2 years, but the predictive ability of a model was poor, according to a study presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress. A team of researchers from Denmark examined long-term all-cause mortality and predictors for mortality in a prospective study of adult patients admitted to an ED with sepsis. The analysis included 2,110 patients with suspected infections. The researchers found that during a median follow-up of 2 years, 50.6% of patients died. An increased risk for mortality was independently associated with age (HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.03 -1.05), a history of cancer (HR, 2.21; 95% CI, 1.70-2.87), ischemic heart disease (HR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.05-1.85), dementia (HR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.41-2.57), and previous admission with sepsis (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.19-1.84) within the last 6 months before the index admission. A model without age produced the best fit (Harrel’s C = 0.488).