Sepsis-3 definitions
Intensive care and infectious diseases
Also known as: Sepsis-3-Definition · Sepsis-Definition · Sepsis-3 tanımı · Sepsis-3 definitions of sepsis and septic shock
What it is for
The Third International Consensus Definitions (Sepsis-3, 2016) of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) for adults.
Classification
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Sepsis | life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. |
| Organ dysfunction | an acute increase in the total SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) score of ≥2 points due to the infection; the baseline is taken as 0 when no pre-existing organ dysfunction is known. |
| Septic shock | a subset of sepsis with circulatory and cellular/metabolic abnormalities. Clinical criteria: vasopressors needed to keep mean arterial pressure ≥65 mmHg AND serum lactate >2 mmol/L (18 mg/dL), despite adequate fluid resuscitation. |
| Dropped terms | "severe sepsis" was removed; SIRS criteria no longer define sepsis. |
| Bedside prompt | quick SOFA (qSOFA: respiratory rate ≥22/min, altered mentation, systolic blood pressure ≤100 mmHg; ≥2 positive) flags patients with suspected infection at risk; it is not part of the definition. |
| Note | the criteria were built on the original SOFA (1996); SOFA-2 was published in 2025. |
Source
The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3)
SCCM/ESICM · JAMA 2016;315:801-810 (Singer M et al.; SCCM and ESICM task force)
PMID: 26903338
- Edition
- Sepsis-3 (2016), current consensus definition
- Checked on
Summary of the published classification in our own words. Not a substitute for the original publication.
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