[New approaches to intensive care for sepsis]

In Germany, the mortality from sepsis remains high, and up to 60,000 patients die from it each year. Thus, sepsis is the third most common cause of death. More deaths occur only from coronary heart disease and acute myocardial infarction. In the last 3-4 years, substantial progress in sepsis therapy has been made. Based on these achievements, there is hope of reducing sepsis mortality by 25% in the next few years. Implementing new medical evidence in this context into daily clinical intensive care remains a major hurdle. The early diagnosis of sepsis prior to the onset of clinical deterioration is of particular interest, because this would increase the possibility of early and specified treatment, which is in turn the major determining factor of mortality in septic patients.