Sepsis (Part 1) - Assessment and diagnosis

Clinical Conversations

Sepsis is arguably the most common time critical emergency we face as paramedics. This is the first of a two part series on sepsis with Professor Andrew Udy. Andrew is Head of Research at The Alfred ICU, and Deputy Director, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre. He was involved in the development of the recently released Ambulance Victoria Sepsis and Infection guideline. In this episode, Ambulance Victoria Medical Director A/Prof David Anderson and Andrew discuss the assessment and diagnosis of sepsis.

Get in touch

⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠

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David: ⁠⁠@expensivecare⁠⁠

James: ⁠⁠@JamesOz1⁠

Further resources

NICE. Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management 2017. Available from: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng51.

Royal Children's Hospital. Sepsis – assessment and management 2020. Available from: https://www.rch.org.au/clinicalguide/guideline_index/SEPSIS_assessment_and_management/.

Inada-Kim M. NEWS2 and improving outcomes from sepsis. Clin Med (Lond). 2022;22(6):514-7.

Lisa S, Shammi R, Steve G. Comparison of qSOFA and Hospital Early Warning Scores for prognosis in suspected sepsis in emergency department patients: a systematic review. Emergency Medicine Journal. 2022;39(4):284.

Mellhammar L, Linder A, Tverring J, Christensson B, Boyd JH, Sendi P, et al. NEWS2 is Superior to qSOFA in Detecting Sepsis with Organ Dysfunction in the Emergency Department. J Clin Med. 2019;8(8).

Oduncu AF, Kıyan GS, Yalçınlı S. Comparison of qSOFA, SIRS, and NEWS scoring systems for diagnosis, mortality, and morbidity of sepsis in emergency department. Am J Emerg Med. 2021;48:54-9.

Patel R, Nugawela MD, Edwards HB, Richards A, Le Roux H, Pullyblank A, et al. Can early warning scores identify deteriorating patients in pre-hospital settings? A systematic review. Resuscitation. 2018;132:101-11.

Steve G, Laura S, Ben T, Olivia H, Khurram I, Susan C, et al. Prehospital early warning scores for adults with suspected sepsis: retrospective diagnostic cohort study. Emergency Medicine Journal. 2023;40(11):768.

Verity Frances T, Melanie M, Graham H, Andy S, Aroha B, Tony S, et al. Predictive value of the New Zealand Early Warning Score for early mortality in low-acuity patients discharged at scene by paramedics: an observational study. BMJ Open. 2022;12(7):e058462.

Wang C, Xu R, Zeng Y, Zhao Y, Hu X. A comparison of qSOFA, SIRS and NEWS in predicting the accuracy of mortality in patients with suspected sepsis: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE. 2022;17:e0266755.