Sepsis
Life-threatening organ dysfunction caused not by infection alone but by a dysregulated host response to it, in which speed of recognition and treatment is the entire determinant of survival.
First principles
Sepsis is organ dysfunction from a dysregulated response, not the infection itself
A normal infection triggers a proportionate, localised inflammatory response that clears the organism. In sepsis, the release of inflammatory mediators (TNF-alpha, IL-1, IL-6) becomes excessive and systemic rather than contained, causing widespread endothelial injury, vasodilation, capillary leak and microvascular thrombosis. Organs far from the original site of infection then fail as a consequence of this dysregulated response. This is why sepsis is defined by life-threatening organ dysfunction, not simply by having a severe infection.
Educational content pending clinical review. Not medical advice.