Septic Shock: Treating Blood Infections, Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infections

Septic shock can be a life-threatening condition if not treated in a timely manner. Treating infections such as pneumonia or urinary tract infections early can prevent septic shock. Taison Bell, MD, explains this blood infection and the effective treatments available at UVA.

If you have septic shock, visit the ER: https://uvahealth.com/locations/profi...

In Taison Bell’s Words:
Septic shock is the result of an infection that’s in the blood stream. These can be infections that come from different sorts of areas. So, in the lungs, it would be called a pneumonia, or in the urine, a urinary tract infection. And often times, when we get these infections, our bodies are able to fight them off, and especially if we can get antibiotics and other therapies, it can kind of turn the course. But sometimes the infection gets worse, and the shock happens when the body has an abnormal, exaggerated response to the infection. And this can lead to a host of downstream complications that are primarily related to the inability of the body to deliver oxygenated blood to your vital organs, and when that happens, the organs can start to shut down, or go into organ failure. And the key to treating this is to give antibiotics early, effective antibiotics, to give intravenous fluids to help support blood flow to the organs, and try to support all the organ function that the patient needs.