What are the symptoms of sepsis?

Sepsis is a common blood disease in life, which is generally caused by bacteria infecting the blood. The onset of sepsis requires timely treatment to avoid posing a threat to the body's functions. Let’s learn about the obvious symptoms of sepsis today.

Signs

1. Symptoms of infection and poisoning: Most of them have an acute onset, first with chills or shivering, followed by high fever, with uncertain fever patterns, remittent fever or retained fever; the weak, severely malnourished and infants may not have a fever, or even have a body temperature lower than normal. Mental depression or irritability. In severe cases, the face may become pale or gray and the patient may become unconscious. The extremities are cold, breathing is rapid, heart rate is increased, blood pressure is decreased, and infants and young children may also develop jaundice.

2. Skin lesions: Various skin lesions may be seen in some children, with petechiae, ecchymoses, scarlet fever-like rash, and urticaria-like rash being the most common. The rash is common on the skin of the limbs, trunk, or oral mucosa. In meningococcal sepsis, petechiae or ecchymoses of varying sizes may be seen; scarlet fever-like rash is common in streptococcal and Staphylococcus aureus sepsis.

3. Gastrointestinal symptoms : vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and even vomiting blood and bloody stools are common; in severe cases, toxic intestinal paralysis, dehydration, and acidosis may occur.

4. Joint symptoms: Some children may experience joint swelling and pain, movement disorders or joint effusion, which are more common in large joints.

5. Hepatosplenomegaly: It is more common in infants and young children, with mild or moderate enlargement; some children may develop toxic hepatitis; when liver abscess is caused by migratory damage of Staphylococcus aureus, liver tenderness is obvious.

6. Other symptoms: Severely ill children often have symptoms of solid organ involvement such as myocarditis, heart failure, confusion, drowsiness, coma, oliguria or anuria. Staphylococcus aureus sepsis often presents with multiple migratory lesions; Gram-negative bacterial sepsis is often complicated by shock and DIC. Petechiae, ecchymoses, pus, cerebrospinal fluid, pleural effusion, and ascites can also be directly smeared and examined under a microscope to look for bacteria.