Procalcitonina y sepsis en pacientes de cirugía general

Abstract

In the last few years, the utility of procalcitonin (PCT) as a marker of severity of sepsis has been studied. PCT values may be useful in differentiating septic stages and in predicting postoperative complications. The principal objectives of our study were to demonstrate that PCT is a useful and early marker in the diagnosis and differentiation of sepsis in surgical patients and to assess PCT levels in the diagnosis of postoperative infectious complications. We performed a prospective study to evaluate a diagnostic test in 75 patients from March to July 2009 by establishing two groups: the first group consisted of patients with infectious diseases (acute cholecystitis, acute diverticulitis, mesenteric ischemia and gastrointestinal perforations) and the second group comprised patients with non-infectious diseases who developed infectious complications (urinary tract infection, catheter-associated bacteremia, pneumonia, intraabdominal abscess, surgical wound infection and anastomotic dehiscence) during the postoperative period. The results showed that PCT values were elevated in septic processes. Moreover, the higher these values, the greater the severity of the process.