Mechanical Ventilation in Infection, Sepsis and Organ Failure

Each day thousands of children across the world die as a result of infection. Sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock represent a continuum of increasing severity for which present definitions are not wholly satisfactory (Levy et al. 2003; Brilli and Goldstein 2005). The term sepsis refers to the presence of an infection caused by a microbe that invades tissue, fluid or a body cavity that is normally sterile, plus the presence of clinical and/or laboratory evidence of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS, temperature or leucocyte abnormalities and abnormal vital signs) (Goldstein et al. 2005). When sepsis is complicated by multi-organ failure, it is regarded as severe, while septic shock is diagnosed when sepsis coexists with a state of acute circulatory failure (Levy et al. 2003).