[Pathology and pathogenesis of sepsis]

The key problems of the theory of sepsis and criteria of its postmortem diagnosis are discussed on the basis of pathological and bacteriological study of about 4000 purulent-septic diseases observed for the last 40 years in the pathology department of N. V. Sklifosovsky Moscow Research Institute of Emergency Medical Aid (sepsis after abortion, surgical and iatrogenic sepsis, acute septic endocarditis, purulent peritonitis, mediastinitis, pleuritis, phlegmons of body and limbs, bacterial shock, etc.). Sepsis, according to the author, is a generalized infectious disease developing acyclically, produced mainly by purulent coccal flora and having the course of septicopyemia. A metastatic purulent focus is an obligatory sign of the generalization. Septicemia is a local inflammatory process produced mainly by bacterial gram-negative flora. It can be a prologue of sepsis but more frequently develops in two directions: 1) purulent-resorptive fever with an acute, subacute and chronic course; 2) bacterial shock with a fulminant course and high lethality.