COVID-19: A major contributor to Sepsis, new study reveals

The team assessed the incidence and mortality rates of SARS-CoV-2-associated sepsis using clinical criteria adapted from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) sepsis surveillance definition. This criteria incorporated positive SARS-CoV-2 tests and clinical indicators of organ dysfunction. Analyzing EHR data spanning from March 2020 to November 2022, the researchers identified 431,017 hospitalizations involving 261,595 individuals.

During this period, 5.4% of hospitalizations were attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infections, with 28.2% of these cases associated with SARS-CoV-2-induced sepsis. Initially, patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated sepsis faced a high mortality rate of 33% during the pandemic's first three months. However, this rate gradually decreased over time, eventually aligning with the mortality rate for presumed bacterial sepsis, which remained stable at around 14.5% throughout the study.

Furthermore, the researchers confirmed that their electronic surveillance definition accurately identified cases of viral sepsis resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infections using the Mass General Brigham EHR dataset.