Dear SIRS, I'm sorry to say that I don't like you..
Vincent, J.L.
Critical Care Medicine 25(2): 372-374
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0090-3493 PMID: 9034279 Document Number: 6495
In recent years, we have made considerable progress in the field of sepsis. With each advance, we have needed to reexamine what we understand by the term "sepsis." This reevaluation has led to the problems associated with our definitions of sepsis at the present time. It has become harder, as our knowledge has increased, to identify the boundaries between infection and sepsis. Sepsis and infection are frequently used as independent terms, but this terminology oversimplifies an extremely complex relationship. An infection is a process related to the presence of microorganisms. Sepsis is the process related to the host response to that infection. The distinction between the two is not straightforward, however, since an infection usually involves some degree of host response. Admittedly, this host response may be minimal or even absent in some elderly, neonate, or immunosuppressed patients. In many cases, in the absence of a host response, "colonization" is a more appropriate word.
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