Myocardial dysfunction in sepsis and septic shock

Abstract

Sepsis and septic shock represent a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. The most widely accepted estimate of incidence of severe sepsis in the United States is 750,000 cases per year, with 215,000 annual deaths (1). Over the past 40 years, the incidence of sepsis has increased at approximately 8.7% per year (2). During the same time period, total mortality has increased even though the overall mortality rate has fallen from 27.8% to 17.9% (2). Despite major advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of septic shock, the associated mortality of septic shock per se appears substantially unchanged over the past 40 years (3). © 2008 Springer-Verlag London.