ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a potentially fatal condition with high treatment costs, and is especially common among the elderly population. The emergency management of septic patients has gained importance. OBJECTIVE: Herein, we investigated the effect of admission lactate levels and the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) on the 30-day mortality among patients older than 65years who were diagnosed with sepsis and septic shock according to the qSOFA criteria at our hospital's emergency department. METHODS: This observational study was conducted retrospectively. We obtained information regarding patients' demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, hemodynamic parameters at admission, initial treatment needs at the emergency department. RESULTS: 131 patients received a diagnosis of sepsis and septic shock at our emergency department in two years. Among these, 45% (n=59) of the patients died within 30days of admission. Forty (30.5%) patients required mechanical ventilation. There was a significant difference between the survival and non-survival groups with regard to systolic and diastolic blood pressures (p=0.013 and 0.045, respectively). There were significant differences between the two groups with respect to the Glasgow Coma Scale score (p<0.001) and BUN levels (p<0.001). The mortality status according to qSOFA scores was revealed a significant difference between the two groups (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that the patients who died within 30days of admission and those who did not had comparable PLR and lactate levels (p=0.821 and 0.120, respectively). We opine that serial lactate measurements would be more useful than a single admission lactate measurement for the prediction of mortality.
