The importance of a sepsis layered early warning system for critical patients

Hui Lian; Hongmin Zhang; Xin Ding; Xiaoting Wang

The importance of a sepsis layered early warning system for critical patients

Am J Transl Res. 2022 Aug 15;14(8):5229-5242. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hui Lian¹, Hongmin Zhang², Xin Ding², Xiaoting Wang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Care, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100730, P. R. China.
² Department of Critical Care Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Beijing 100730, P. R. China.

PMID: 36105025
PMCID: PMC9452367

Abstract

Critical illness, particularly sepsis, is associated with high mortality, so prevention is more important than effective therapy. Advances in medical science have provided more opportunities for early warning and early intervention to avoid the development of critical illness. Existing early warning systems (EWS) have the advantages of high efficiency and convenience. However, with the development of medical technology, they do not completely meet clinical needs. EWS should contain elements that meet many dimensions of clinical requirements, including risk warning, response warning, injury warning, critical warning, and death warning. By summarizing previous studies, we outlined a layered EWS that follows RISK bundles. RISK represents different warning sign categories: R: host response, I: organ injury, S: changes in vital signs, and K: gradual appearance of "killed" organs. We plan to construct a complete layered EWS to guide clinical activities and subsequent clinical studies in the near future.

Keywords: Layered early warning system; RISK bundles; critical illness; injury; intensive care unit; response.

Publication types

Review