Clinical risk factors for early mortality in patients with community-acquired septic shock. The importance of adequate source control.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence and risk factors for early mortality (EM) in the ICU in patients with community-acquired septic shock (CASS).

DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study of patients with CASS admitted to the ICU (2003-2016).

SETTING: ICU at a University Hospital in Spain.

PATIENTS: All consecutive patients admitted to the ICU with CASS.

INTERVENTIONS: None.

MAIN VARIABLES OF INTEREST: CASS was defined according to the Sepsis-3 definitions. EM were defined as occurring within of 72h following ICU admission. A multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the risk factors associated with early deaths.

RESULTS: During the study period, 625 patients met the Sepsis-3 criteria and admitted with CASS. 14.4% of all patients died within the first 72h. Of 161 patients who died in the ICU, 90 (55.9%) died within the first 72h. The percentage of early and late mortality did not vary significantly during the study period. The need and adequacy of source control were significantly lower in patients with EM. In the multivariate analysis, ARDS, non-respiratory infections, bacteremia and severity at admission were variables independently associated with EM. The only factor that decreased EM was adequate source control in patients with infections amenable to source control.

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of EM has remained stable over time, which means that more than half of the patients who die from CASS do so within the first 72h. Infections where adequate source control can be performed have lower EM.