PATHOLOGICAL FEATURES IN PATIENTS WITH SEPSIS – AN AUTOPSY STUDY
Keywords:
SEPSIS, AUTOPSY, PATHOLOGICAL LESIONSAbstract
Background and aim: Our study aims to evaluate the etiologic profile of lesions and morphologic changes identified in the pathology generating sepsis, and to establish the lesion pattern based on necropsy examination in correlation with relevant clinical and microbiological data. Materials and methods: The study group included 100 patients with a clinical diagnosis of sepsis who had died, of whom 41 required autopsies. Results: The sepsis was confirmed after completing macroscopic and histological examination of the organs during the autopsy. 18 patients (36.58%) had a severe septic pulmonary involvement, the macroscopic diagnosis of death for 15 of them being bronchopneumonia (83.33%). For 8 patients (19.51%), the septic injury was localized at meningocerebral level, another 4 patients presented intimal valvular injuries, sustaining the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis. The most common non-specific lesions were congestion of red pulp of spleen (85.36%), severe cerebral (78.04%) and pulmonary edema (58.53%), and disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome (51.21%). Discussion: The autopsy confirmed a heterogeneity of specific and non-specific lesions, and no general lesion profile could be drawn. Antibiotics are the mainstay of sepsis therapy. However, antibiotics failed to control the main outbreak of infection, with subsequent sepsis leading to death. Conclusion: The identified pathological features delineated the landmarks of the septic lesion within the batch, emphasizing the severity of the single or associated lesions.
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