Abstract
Surgery presents an infectious risk that varies depending on several factors. First of all, emergency interventions present a greater risk of infection than elective interventions, while other risk factors are related to the type of surgery, the organ concerned, the length of surgery, and the type of subject undergoing the surgical procedure.
Other risk factors are related to the kind of patient one is dealing with, and frail patients are at the highest infectious risk.
Frailty has always been considered linked to disability, comorbidity, and other characteristics, but it may actually have a biological basis and be a distinct clinical syndrome.
Regardless of the subject’s risk factors, early diagnosis of sepsis is essential, starting with the stratification of patients which can be carried out through classification methods. The SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) score, which has been updated very recently by a Consensus on the definition of Sepsis and Septic Shock, takes into consideration some parameters that evaluate the severity of the clinical and metabolic structure.
Among the scores used, in addition to C-reactive protein and procalcitonin, recently, other biomarkers have been studied.
In the treatment of sepsis, the goal is to use the correct antibiotic as soon as possible.
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Beltrame, A., Anselmo, M. (2023). Recognition and Early Management of Sepsis in Frail Patients. In: Aseni, P., Grande, A.M., Leppäniemi, A., Chiara, O. (eds) The High-risk Surgical Patient. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17273-1_13
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