Sepsis Perfusion Assessment: A Matter of Seeing and Touching

A heightened level of care.

Sepsis is estimated to strike up to 3.1 million people in the United States each year, and in 2014 resulted in over 182,000 deaths. Patients who develop sepsis are subjected to an onslaught of procedures and interventions, from cardiac monitoring and transfer to the ICU to frequent blood sampling and insertion of central lines and urinary catheters. It is a frightening experience and requires attention to the patient’s experience and interventions to mitigate stress.

According to a clinical feature article in our October issue, “Assessing Patients During Septic Shock Resuscitation,” the revised six-hour bundle from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign includes a recommendation that, after initial fluid resuscitation, patients’ perfusion and volume status should be reassessed.

Noninvasive bedside indicators of perfusion and volume status.

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This article focuses on measuring capillary refill time (CRT) and the skin mottling score (SMS; see figure at right) and details the evidence underlying the correct way to perform these assessments and how to incorporate findings into the overall plan of care.

One of the key advantages of these two measurements is that they are noninvasive and require no equipment—just the eyes and touch of an astute nurse—yet they are highly valuable in the overall […]

2017-10-27T10:05:47-04:00October 27th, 2017|Nursing|0 Comments
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As Sepsis Awareness Increases and Guidelines Change, Timing Remains Crucial

By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week.

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September was Sepsis Awareness Month, but the urgency of the issue didn’t disappear when the month ended. I still remember my first day in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) I’d soon call home. I was shadowing the charge nurse, and an admission had just come in from the ED.

“Here, we need a CVP setup.” A crinkly bag of normal saline and a matching package containing something evidently important were shoved into my hands—a medical football passed to the only open player.

Very quickly, I would learn what a CVP, or central venous pressure, was and to monitor it. I would learn all about sepsis, and septic shock, and the treatment of its devastating process. Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) was a primer for my care in this unit, and on my first day off of orientation, I was entrusted with one of its full-blown victims: Septic shock from pneumonia, causing respiratory, renal, and heart failure. Learning to spike a bag of saline for a CVP transducer was just my first step into the vast and complicated land of sepsis management.

This was 2007. Sometimes, as in all hospitals, care was delayed and septic patients sat without timely treatment for hours. Back then, we tubed people, snowed people, and flooded people. […]

2016-11-21T13:03:47-05:00October 6th, 2014|Nursing, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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