Predictability of Pediatric Sepsis Outcome Using SEPSIS-3 Definition in a Single Tertiary Pediatric Institution

Sepsis is a syndrome of dysregulated response to infection and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Sepsis was initially defined as a host’s systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) to infection. In 2016, the importance of dysregulated response was incorporated into the definition of sepsis; adult sepsis was redefined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection, with organ function being evaluated by the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score (Sepsis-3 definition). However, the definition of pediatric sepsis remains the same, based on the original, SIRS-based criteria. In this study, we examined the relationship between mortality and sepsis in pediatric patients in our institution using the Sepsis-3 definition by incorporating the pediatric SOFA (pSOFA) score system, which was reported in 2017. We found that sepsis mortality was better correlated with the pSOFA score in our pediatric cohort. We also found that patients who did not have identified microbes were associated with better survival. In the future, we need to determine the relationship between mortality and Sepsis-3 definition-based pediatric sepsis worldwide to further define the utility of this new definition.