Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to comparatively examine the clinical and laboratory findings of patients applied to the emergency department with high fever, and received the diagnosis of bacteriemia and sepsis diagnosed and investigate the management of diagnosis and treatment, and the factors involved in mortality.

Method: Characteristics of the patients who applied to Harran University emergency department with complaint of high fever between January 2013 and December 2015 were investigated from the files according to the etiology of fever. Totally 200 patients with bacteremia and sepsis were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups as bacteremia and sepsis patients and the results were evaluated retrospectively.

Results: Sixty (30%) of the highly febrile patients included in our study had sepsis and 140 (70%) had bacteremia. The mean body temperature was 38.00±0.51°C in bacteremia patients and 37.75±0.43°C in sepsis patients.The mean hospital stay in bacteriemic patients was 1.34±1.75 days and in the sepsis group it was 13.98±8.75 days. In the bacteremia group, the mean systolic blood pressure was 123.64±11.76 mmHg, the diastolic blood pressure was 78.14±7.82 mmHg; in the sepsis group In the becteremia group the corresponding mean values were 112.50±17.81 mmHg and 73.33±11.74 mmHg, respectively. The mean Glaskow Coma Scale was 15.00±0.00; in bacteriemia,and 14.46±1.55 in the sepsis group. The source of the sepsis was most commonly respiratory infections.The most common accompanying disease was diabetes mellitus. Tachycardia and blood oxygen saturation levels were found to be decreased in sepsis. Albumin values, blood pressure and arterial blood gas saturation were lower in sepsis patients. In addition, other hemogram markers such as red blood cell count, hematocrit and platelet counts were found to be lower in sepsis when compared to bacteremia.

Conclusion: A significant number of patients with sepsis died. Sepsis patients had stayed longer in hospital. The degree of hypothermia was not associated with mortality in sepsis.