Abstract
IntroductionElderly patients are at increased risk of developing sepsis and its adverse outcomes. Diagnosing and prognosing sepsis is particularly challenging in older patients, especially early at emergency department (ED) arrival. We aimed to study and compare the characteristics of elderly and very elderly ED patients with sepsis and determine baseline factors associated with in-hospital mortality. We also compared prognostic accuracy of the criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome, quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA), and the National Early Warning Score in predicting mortality.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study at the ED of Siriraj Hospital Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. Patients over 18 years old who were diagnosed and treated for sepsis in the ED between August 2018–July 2019 were included. We categorized patients into non-elderly (aged <65 years), elderly (aged 65–79 years), and the very elderly (aged >80 years) groups. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Baseline demographics, comorbidities, source and etiology of sepsis, including physiologic variables, were compared and analyzed to identify predictors of mortality. We calculated and compared the area under the receiver operator characteristics curves (AUROC) of early warning scores.ResultsOf 1616 ED patients with sepsis, 668 (41.3%) were very elderly, 512 (31.7%) were elderly, and 436 (27.0%) were non-elderly. The mortality rate was highest in the very elderly, followed by the elderly and the non-elderly groups (32.3%, 25.8%, and 24.8%, respectively). Factors associated with mortality in the very elderly included the following: age; do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status; history of recent admission <3 months; respiratory tract infection; systolic blood pressure <100 millimeters mercury (SBP<100); oxygen saturation; and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Factors associated with mortality in the elderly were DNR status, body temperature, and GCS score. qSOFA had the highest AUROC in predicting in-hospital mortality in both very elderly and elderly patients (AUROC 0.60 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.55–0.65] and 0.55 [95% CI, 0.49–0.61, respectively]).ConclusionThe mortality rate in the very elderly was higher than in the younger populations. Age, DNR status, recent admission, respiratory tract infection, SBP<100, oxygen saturation. and GCS score independently predicted hospital mortality in very elderly patients. The qSOFA score had better but only moderate accuracy in predicting mortality in elderly and very elderly sepsis patients.
Highlights
Patients are at increased risk of developing sepsis and its adverse outcomes
Factors associated with mortality in the very elderly included the following: age; do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status; history of recent admission
Factors associated with mortality in the elderly were DNR status, body temperature, and GCS score. quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) had the highest area under the receiver operator characteristics curves (AUROC) in predicting in-hospital mortality in both very elderly and elderly patients (AUROC 0.60 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.55-0.65] and 0.55 [95% CI, 0.49-0.61, respectively])
Summary
Patients are at increased risk of developing sepsis and its adverse outcomes. The incidence of sepsis increases with age, especially in very elderly patients (age >80 years), and mortality is significantly higher in this population.[9,10] This high incidence and mortality could be explained by various reasons, such as multiple pre-existing comorbidities, reduced functional reserve, and abnormal immune system.[11] Diagnosing sepsis is more difficult, given elderly patients’ vague symptoms and atypical clinical presentations. This poses an extreme challenge for emergency physicians to recognize such patients early, especially those at greater risk of adverse outcomes
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