How Soon Do We Need to Give Antibiotics to Septic Children?

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign advises antibiotic administration within 1 hour of recognition of severe sepsis or septic shock, based on data from adults. To assess the effects of timing of antibiotics on outcomes in children, researchers reviewed data for 130 patients (21% with severe sepsis; 79% with septic shock) entered into a sepsis registry at a single pediatric academic medical center during 1 year.

Median times from sepsis recognition to initial antibiotic administration and first appropriate antibiotic administration were 140 minutes and 177 minutes, respectively. Mortality risk increased with each additional hour delay in antibiotic administration beyond 3 hours. After controlling for illness severity, the odds ratios for mortality …