[Severe sepsis and multiple organ failure in surgical patients in intensive care unit of oncological profile]

Forty-seven cases with grave sepsis and multiple organ failure in patients operated on for malignant tumors of different localizations and treated in intensive care wards of Cancer Research Center in 1996 are analyzed. In 35 patients sepsis developed due to pyoseptic complications of surgery and led to multiple organ failure, in 12 sepsis complicated multiple organ failure of other origin. Four or five organ systems were involved in 2/3 of patients with "primary" sepsis and in almost all patients with "secondary" sepsis. Sepsis and multiple organ failure in surgical cancer patients are believed to differ much from those in general surgical patients, which is explained by the scope of intervention, a tendency to decrease the number of indications for surgery, and by profound impairment of immunity and metabolism.