Release of toxic agents in septic shock.

Abstract

The presence of toxic factors in various forms of injury must have been obvious to prehistoric man when he first experienced the relief following spontaneous drainage of an abscess. Within a few hours, the tachycardia, sweating, feeling of weakness, and malaise disappeared, and he could not help but speculate on the toxic effects of pus, the subject that concerns us now. This dramatic systemic response to the drainage of an abscess is, I think, one of the most solid indicators of the possibility that a toxic agent emanating from an area of injured tissue is responsible for many of the systemic effects of sepsis. To this day, the most striking response seen in septic patients follows the drainage of an abscess, the removal of a septic uterus, or the amputation of a septic gangrenous leg.