Although use of antimicrobials and vasopressors may improve
outcomes, the mortality rate in older adults with sepsis
remains high. Furthermore, older adults that survive sepsis
are likely to suffer from a significant decline in functional status.
Martin et al [3] identified that among elderly patients discharged
after a hospitalization for sepsis, over half did not return
home, with most requiring admission to a long-term
care facility. A larger study by Iwashyna et al [25] found that older adults who survived severe sepsis were more likely to have
new cognitive impairment and functional decline compared
with those with nonsepsis admissions. Our descriptive results
support prior research, which show that older adults have a significant
decline in functional status after hospitalization for
sepsis.
Our findings, along with the existing literature, may have important
implications in the treatment of older adults with sepsis.
Despite benefit of therapies recommended by the Surviving
Sepsis Campaign, older adults have a high mortality rate and
functional decline after ICU admission for sepsis. Efforts to improve
outcomes of older adults with sepsis by evaluating measures
that impact mortality are needed. However, it may be
equally important to address end-of-life planning before and
during such acute care episodes [26]. Furthermore, during a
hospitalization for sepsis, patients, families, and physicians
should be aware of the potential need for posthospitalization long-term care including need for admission to a nursing
home or skilled nursing facility [27].
Our study has some limitations. First, diagnosis of sepsis was
made retrospectively via chart review and did not use the expanded
definition of sepsis, which includes several other inflammatory,
hemodynamic, and organ dysfunction variables.
However, we rigorously limited the definition of sepsis to include
a documented infection (as designated by CDC/NHSN
Surveillance Definitions for HAI and reviewed by 2 physicians)
plus at least 2 of 4 SIRS criteria within 48 hours of admission
to the ICU. In addition, we were unable to differentiate
community-acquired infections from HAI. Second, we were unable
to assess whether effective antimicrobials active against the
identified organism and/or vasopressors were administered
within 1 hour of sepsis diagnosis as suggested by the Surviving
Sepsis Campaign; however, we were able to confirm use within
48 hours of ICU admission for sepsis. Because we did not have exact timings of antimicrobial administration, we were unable to
evaluate time to effective therapy as a predictor of mortality. We
were also unable to assess the type of empiric antimicrobial and
whether it was active against the identified organism or concordant
with recommendations from the surviving sepsis campaign.
However, it is standard practice to use broad-spectrumantimicrobials
in the ICU setting and anticipate that in most instances,
identified pathogens would have been treated by the empiric regimens.
Third, we acknowledge that data from our study was initially
collected in 2002–2004. However, few studies since then
have focused specifically on older adults [7]. Thus, our findings
may still have important clinical implications in this population.
Fourth, we did not have hemodynamic parameters to assess
whether use of vasopressors was according to the surviving sepsis
protocol, and we could not assess whether other interventions
such as fluid resuscitation and glucose monitoring were performed.
However, it is not clear that protocols driving central hemodynamicmonitoring
improves outcomes compared with usual
care [28]. Fifth, there were many missing values for the ADL and
IADL outcomes; thus, we were only able to provide descriptive results.
Finally, our study was a single-center study and, thus, the
results may not be generalizable.