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Urosepsis, also known as urinary sepsis, is a systemic bacterial infection. Urosepsis most often appears as a complication of urinary tract diseases, especially in urolithiasis or reflux. The disease affects both adults and children, develops at a dizzying pace and when diagnosed too late, it can threaten the patient’s life.
What is urosepsa?
Urosepsis is also known as urinary sepsis when bacteria are found in the blood. Sepsis is a complex of symptoms that occurs as the body overreacts to infection. Urosepsis, on the other hand, is a set of inflammatory reactions that occur in response to an infection of the urinary tract. Urinary tract infection is one of the most common infections in the human population. There are three categories of urinary tract infections: uncomplicated, complicated and sepsis. Urosepsis is much more common in children than in adult patients. It happens that in the case of the youngest, it is the result of congenital defects of the urinary system, i.e. vesicoureteral reflux. If the disease is diagnosed quickly and treated appropriately, the risk of irreversible damage to the body is significantly reduced.
Urosepsa – causes
The most common cause of sepsis is the presence of gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, other non-fermenting bacteria or, less often, fungi. If you suffer from urinary problems, the risk of sepsis is significantly increased. Therefore, diseases such as kidney stones, prostatic hyperplasia, ureteric reflux, neurogenic bladder, narrowing of the upper or lower urinary tract may contribute to the occurrence of urosepsis. The risk of developing urosepsis increases significantly in pregnancy as well. Urosepsis can also be caused by an infection or a complication after surgery in the urinary tract, most often it concerns catheterization. Pathogenic bacteria can enter the bladder when the catheter is inserted into the bladder. Urosepsis is much more likely to develop in immunocompromised people, taking immunosuppressants, diabetics, alcohol abusers or elderly patients.
How to recognize the symptoms of urosepsis?
Urosepsis occurs suddenly and its main symptoms include:
- high or low body temperature;
- chills;
- accelerated heartbeat;
- rapid breathing;
- increasing anxiety and difficult contact with the patient;
- Pressure drop;
- abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Urosepsis is severe if the above symptoms are accompanied by failure or significant damage to at least one internal organ. Urosepsis may lead to cardiovascular dysfunction, renal failure, metabolic acidosis, liver failure and large and distinct changes in the skin as a result of an increase in the concentration of toxins.
Treatment of urosepsis
Treatment of urosepsis is based on antibiotic therapy combined with combating the aforementioned symptoms. Until the blood culture results are obtained, the patient is administered antibiotics with a broad spectrum of activity. In the case of severe urosepsis, patients are treated in the intensive care unit.
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