Improvement of 1st-hour bundle compliance and sepsis mortality in pediatrics after the implementation of the surviving sepsis campaign guidelines.

OBJECTIVES: To study the impact of the implementation of the Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign protocol on early recognition of sepsis, 1-h treatment bundle and mortality. METHODS: Retrospective, single-center study, before and after the implementation of the sepsis protocol. OUTCOMES: sepsis recognition, compliance with the 1-h bundle (fluid resuscitation, blood culture, antibiotics), time interval to fluid resuscitation and antibiotics administration, and mortality. Patients with febrile neutropenia were excluded. The comparisons between the periods were performed using non-parametric tests and odds ratios or relative risk were calculated. RESULTS: We studied 84 patients before and 103 after the protocol implementation. There was an increase in sepsis recognition (OR 21.5 [95% CI: 10.1-45.7]), in the compliance with the 1-h bundle as a whole (62% x 0%), and with its three components: fluid resuscitation (OR 31.1 [95% CI: 3.9-247.2]), blood culture (OR 15.9 [95% CI: 3.9-65.2]), and antibiotics (OR 35.6 [95% CI: 8.9-143.2]). Significant reduction between sepsis recognition to fluid resuscitation (152min×12min, p<0.001) and to antibiotics administration (137min×30min) also occurred. The risk of death before protocol implementation was four times greater (RR 4.1 [95% CI: 1.2-14.4]), and the absolute death risk reduction was 9%. CONCLUSION: Even if we considered the low precision of some estimates, the lower limits of the Confidence Intervals show that the implementation of the Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines alongside a qualitive assurance initiative has led to improvements in sepsis recognition, compliance with the 1-h treatment bundle, reduction in the time interval to fluid resuscitation and antibiotics, and reduction in sepsis mortality.