Defining sepsis in small animals

Objective

To discuss the definitions of sepsis in human and veterinary medicine.

Design

International, multicenter position statement on the need for consensus definitions of sepsis in veterinary medicine.

Setting

Veterinary private practice and university teaching hospitals.

Animals

Dogs and cats.

Interventions

None.

Measurements and Main Results

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition associated with the body's response to an infection. In human medicine, sepsis has been defined by consensus on 3 occasions, most recently in 2016. In veterinary medicine, there is little uniformity in how sepsis is defined and no consensus on how to identify it clinically. Most publications rely on modified criteria derived from the 1991 and 2001 human consensus definitions. There is a divergence between the human and veterinary descriptions of sepsis and no consensus on how to diagnose the syndrome. This impedes research, hampers the translation of pathophysiology insights to the clinic, and limits our abilities to optimize patient care. It may be time to formally define sepsis in veterinary medicine to help the field move forward. In this narrative review, we present a synopsis of prior attempts to define sepsis in human and veterinary medicine, discuss developments in our understanding, and highlight some criticisms and shortcomings of existing schemes.

Conclusions

This review is intended to serve as the foundation of current efforts to establish a consensus definition for sepsis in small animals and ultimately generate evidence-based criteria for its recognition in veterinary clinical practice.