NOMIS researcher Luregn Schlapbach was invited by The Lancet to lead a series on pediatric sepsis, a life-threatening response to infection. The four articles in this series put forth the current and future landscapes surrounding sepsis in children, including the many challenges health care providers are facing and the opportunities to tackle them. Following are the executive summary, links to the publications and an accompanying profile about Schlapbach.
Executive summary
Sepsis — the dysregulated host response to infection that leads to life-threatening organ dysfunction — is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. The 2024 release of the new Phoenix Criteria for paediatric sepsis will improve research standardisation, benchmarking, and quality improvement — crucial steps towards evidence-based prevention, diagnosis, and treatment and ultimately reducing the burden of sepsis. This cross-journal Series between The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health and The Lancet Digital Health unequivocally calls for targeting paediatric sepsis as a key contributor to poor health outcomes through strengthened collaboration and tailored initiatives. From shedding light on age-specific developmental aspects of childhood sepsis susceptibility to navigating novel digital solutions that could transform real-time support systems, this Series presents the case for sustainable and scalable quality improvement across paediatric critical care and a research roadmap to ending sepsis as a threat to child health globally.
