Six-Hour Sepsis Bundle Decreases Mortality: Truth or Illusion – A Prospective Observational Study

AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate whether 6-h sepsis bundle component compliance (complete vs. incomplete) decreases mortality in pediatric patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. METHODOLOGY: The study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital. Patients aged 1 month–13 years admitted to pediatric intensive care unit with severe sepsis, or septic shock were prospectively enrolled. The clinical data and blood investigations required for sepsis bundle were recorded. Predicted mortality was calculated at admission by the online pediatric index of mortality-2 (PIM-2) score calculator. Patients who fulfilled all the components of 6-h sepsis bundle were taken as compliant while failure to fulfill even a single component rendered them noncompliant. The outcome was recorded as died or discharged. RESULTS: Of 116 patients, 90 (77.59%) had 100% sepsis bundle component compliance and were taken into the compliant group while the rest 26 (22.41%) were noncompliant. Forty out of 90 patients (44.4%) died in compliant group in comparison to 5 out of 26 (19.3%) in noncompliant group, P = 0.020. The pre- and post-interventional lactates were significantly higher in compliant group as compared to the noncompliant group, P < 0.0001 and 0.019, respectively. Rising lactate level parallels increasing predicted mortality by PIM-2 score in compliant group, but this association failed to reach significance in noncompliant group which can be attributed to less number of subjects available in this group. CONCLUSION: Irrespective of sepsis bundle compliance (complete/incomplete), outcome depends on the severity of illness reflected by high lactate and predicted mortality.