Systemic Inflammation and Sepsis

Aims and Missions 

·  To improve quality of care in patients with life-threatening inflammations with and without infections.
·  To further experimental and clinical research in this area.

Chair and deputy 

Konrad Reinhart - Jena, Germany
Daniel De Backer - Brussels, Belgium 

Membership 

There are currently 164 voting members and 1031 registered members. Please note that only the voting members of the Section may elect the chair and the deputy. Do you wish to be one of the members of this Section or do you wish to change your Section registration? Please go to My data. 

Activities 

The activities of the ESICM Section “Systemic Inflammation and Sepsis“(SIS) are dedicated to both experimental research and projects on the clinical management of patients suffering from diseases with inflammatory symptoms.
It most commonly arises from bacterial infection but it can also be caused by a variety of other micro-organisms such as viruses and fungi. This clinical response is referred to as the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and it is named “sepsis” when it is considered as a clinical response to infection.
Sepsis is termed severe when it is associated with organ failure, tissue hypo perfusion or hypotension. Sepsis-associated mortality rates still remain unacceptably high, and we believe that we must work together to embrace new strategies in order to improve patient outcomes still further.
The recent improvement in outcomes has been characterized by the successive introduction of multiple interventions and therapies and is an ongoing process. The current wave of clinical trial data relating to a number of new interventions should be viewed in the context of this trend towards ever-improving management of the condition.
The results of several large randomized trials published within the last years demonstrated that there are indeed new options for treating severe sepsis and septic shock, which include immunomodulation, hemodynamic protocols, and metabolic control.  

Sepsis was one of the predominant topics during the Annual Congress of the ESICM in Amsterdam, September 25-28, 2005.
The number of abstracts has never reached such a ranking before, and the quality has to be considered as constantly increasing during the last years, and – meanwhile – as “first class” compared with other international meetings.
The overall impressive success of the ESICM congress in Amsterdam with the highest number of applicants ever since is at least partially based on the successful clinical trials on sepsis, which gained major interest by the visitors. During the congress, a meeting of the SIS section was held, and the aforementioned optimistic impressions were confirmed by the section members.
This positive feedback encourages preparing a program for the next congress in Barcelona 2006 with a similar excellence.  

The research activities of the SIS section are mostly interactive. These include therapeutic trials such as the CORTICUS project chaired by Charles Sprung, which is described in more detail on this webpage. The SOAP project (Sepsis Occurrence in the Acutely ill Patient), an epidemiologic study on the incidence of sepsis and severe sepsis in intensive care units, was launched by the SIS section and performed by a steering committee chaired by Jean-Louis Vincent. Publications of the first results are pending, and several subprojects with specific topics are currently ongoing.
The most recent activities are part of the ECCRN, especially in collaboration with the GenoSept Project, which plans to investigate the predisposing factors – both genetic and environmental – as well as co-morbidities on development and outcome of sepsis. More details can be found in specific sections of this webpage.

Probably the most striking success has been reached by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC), which was launched in 2002 as an interactive project between ESICM, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), and the International Sepsis Forum (ISF). The SIS section is represented in the Steering Committee of the SSC. The SSC concentrates on education and implementation of evidence-based therapies. Recently, the SSC Guidelines have been published both in Intensive Care Medicine and Critical Care Medicine, which underlines the excellent collaboration between ESICM, SCCM, ISF, and others. The Guidelines were generated by a team of specialists, and 11 international scientific Societies took part.
The next step will be to implement the Guidelines into clinical practice. This difficult assignment is targeted by several strategies, such as the formation of “sepsis bundles” by the Institute of Health Improvement (IHI) in the USA, or by the German Sepsis Society in Germany. You will find more information on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign page.

Finally, there will be more activities in advancing research by new scientific awards, which will be announced on the ESICM Web Page within the next months.

In conclusion, the interactive character of sepsis and sepsis-associated organ dysfunction is an increasing challenge in the future for clinicians and scientists in intensive care medicine. Besides scientific projects, education of young physicians is of major interest for the SIS section of the ESICM.  

This is targeted by the GenOSept project, which is supported by the European Critical Care Research Network (ECCRN).  

Meetings agenda and minutes  

The next meeting of the section will be held on Tuesday 9 October 2007 from 12.00 to 14.00 in room 48 of the Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin (ICC Berlin), Neue Kantstrasse- 14057 Berlin.