Before we can discuss the “Sepsis-3” definitions, we need to look back at the history of Sepsis definitions, and what the rationale was leading the authors to create a new definition. Below is a brief, albeit non-exhaustive, timeline that visually represents the essentials of sepsis research and innovation over the past few decades. As you can see illustrated above, there has been an enormous, multi-specialty, multi-national approach to the understanding of sepsis care. Sepsis has been and remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity as well as a significant use of health care spending, costing more than $20 billion in the US alone. The severity of the disease is compounded by an increasing incidence. The reasons for this may be due to an aging population with increasing comorbidities, increased recognition and possibly due to changes in coding practices.

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