Mortality from Severe Sepsis Decreasing in the U.S.

Epidemiologic investigations in the U.S. have suggested increasing incidence of severe sepsis and septic shock — conditions with a considerable risk for mortality. Is the death toll from these conditions also rising? To shed light on this issue, researchers examined discharge data for 1993 through 2009 from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and findings from multicenter clinical sepsis trials (many of them multinational) with enrollment between 1991 and 2009.

Data from 36 sepsis trials involving 14,418 patients with severe sepsis or septic shock who did not receive investigational treatments showed a significant, 3% annual decline in 28-day mortal…