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| Definition: | Septicemia is the presence of bacteria in the blood (bacteremia) and is often associated with severe disease.
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| Alternative Names: | Blood poisoning; Bacteremia with sepsis
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| Causes, incidence, and risk factors: | Septicemia is a serious, rapidly progressive, life-threatening infection that can arise from infections throughout the body, including infections in the lungs, abdomen, and urinary tract. It may precede or coincide with infections of the bone (osteomyelitis), central nervous system (meningitis), or other tissues. Septicemia can rapidly lead to septic shock and death. Septicemia associated with some organisms such as meningococci can lead to shock, adrenal collapse and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, a condition called Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome.
Onset of septicemia can be heralded by spiking fevers and chills, rapid breathing and heart rate, the outward appearance of being seriously ill (toxic) and a feeling of impending doom. These symptoms rapidly progress to shock with decreased body temperature (hypothermia), falling blood pressure, confusion or other changes in the mental status, and clotting abnormalities evidenced by hemorrhagic lesions in the skin (petechiae and ecchymosis).
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Review Date: 12/5/2001
Reviewed By: Camille Kotton, M.D., Infectious Diseases Division, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.
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