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Various guidelines recommend antibiotic therapy as rapidly as possible or within 1 hour of identification of severe sepsis or septic shock, but whether early administration of antibiotics improves outcomes remains unclear. Investigators retrospectively assessed the association between time to antibiotic administration and mortality in 261 patients (mean age, 59; 41% female) who received early goal-directed therapy (EGDT) in the emergency department (ED) of a tertiary care center.
Patients met criteria for EGDT at triage (47%) or during their ED stays (53%). Forty-eight percent of patients had severe sepsis (2 or more systemic inflammatory response syndrome [SIRS] criteria, source of infection, and at least 1 organ system dysfunction) plus la…