The Medical Perspective on a Disease Life Cycle Sepsis in the Realm of Implementation Science

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Gregory Martin, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-12-01
• Publisher: ATS Journals
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 by the American Thoracic Society
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201807-1293ED
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
• Volume: 198
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 1360
• End Page: 1361
• Grant/Funding Information: Support was provided by grants from the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Science (UL1 TR-002378).
• Keywords: Critical Care Medicine; Science & Technology; Definitions; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; General & Internal Medicine; Respiratory System
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Engineering, Biomedical; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli presciently described two important aspects of sepsis. In the first of these, Machiavelli wrote: “Hectic fever, at its inception, is difficult to recognize but easy to treat; left unattended it becomes easy to recognize and difficult to treat” (1). This eloquently captures several key aspects of how we consider sepsis today: early recognition is difficult, early treatment is most effective, untreated sepsis progresses over time, and late sepsis is exceptionally difficult to treat.