What are the most common causes of sepsis?

What  are the most common causes of sepsis?

In this article we will describe what are the most common causes of sepsis. A bit of background first.

What is sepsis?

Sepsis is a rare but serious complication of an infection. It is the body’s extreme response to an infection. It is a life-threatening medical emergency that requires hospital admission.

Sepsis happens when an infection you already have, triggers a ‘chain reaction’ throughout your body.

So. What are the most common causes of sepsis?

Bacteria cause most cases of sepsis. But sepsis can also be a result of other infections, including viral infections, such as COVID-19 or influenza, or fungal infections. I.e. any infection can lead to sepsis.

But it more commonly starts in the:

• Lungs (e.g pneumonia)
• Urinary tract (e.g. UTI)
• Skin (e.g. cellulitis)
• Abdomen or pelvis
• Brain (e.g. meningitis).

However, sometimes the specific infection and source of sepsis, cannot be identified. Whatever the cause, without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death.

Summary

We have described what are the most common causes of sepsis. We hope you understand it better now. With fast recognition and treatment, most people survive.

Other resources

This is useful patient information from NICE.
The UK Sepsis Trust is the major UK charity with a lot of good information.