Sepsis tied to higher post-discharge mortality risk

(HealthDay)—Sepsis survivors have a substantially increased risk of all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events after discharge, according to a study published online Jan. 25 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Shuo-Ming Ou, M.D., from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues analyzed data from a nationwide population database to identify patients with sepsis from 2000 to 2002. Sepsis survivors were propensity-matched (1-to-1) to control subjects from the general population and control subjects who were hospitalized for a nonsepsis diagnosis.

The researchers found that sepsis survivors had higher risks of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 2.18), major adverse cardiovascular events (HR, 1.37), ischemic stroke (HR, 1.27), hemorrhagic stroke (HR, 1.36), myocardial infarction (HR, 1.22), heart failure (HR, 1.48), and sudden cardiac death or ventricular arrhythmia (HR, 1.65) compared with controls in the general population. Similar results, although with slightly lower risks, were seen when sepsis survivors were compared with nonsepsis hospitalized controls.

"These data indicate that sepsis survivors had substantially increased risks of subsequent all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events at one year after discharge, which persisted for up to five years after discharge," the authors write.