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01-06-2011 | Commentary

Totem and Taboo: Fluids in sepsis

Authors: Andrew K Hilton, Rinaldo Bellomo

Published in: Critical Care | Issue 3/2011

Abstract

The need for early, rapid, and substantial fluid resuscitation in septic patients has long been an article of faith in the intensive care community, a tribal totem that is taboo to question. The results of a recent multicenter trial in septic children in Africa, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, powerfully challenge the fluid paradigm. The salient aspects of the trial need to be understood and reflected upon. In this commentary, we discuss the background to and findings of the trial and explain why they will likely trigger a re-evaluation of our thinking about fluids in sepsis, a re-evaluation that is already happening in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute kidney injury and in postoperative care.

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Title: Totem and Taboo: Fluids in sepsis
Authors: Andrew K Hilton
Rinaldo Bellomo
Publication date: 01-06-2011
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Critical Care / Issue 3/2011
Electronic ISSN: 1364-8535
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/cc10247

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Totem and Taboo: Fluids in sepsis

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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