부산대학교 도서관

Abstract Objective Recent clinical guidelines for sepsis management emphasize immediate antibiotic initiation for suspected septic shock. Though hypotension is a high‐risk marker of sepsis severity, prior studies have not considered the precise timing of hypotension in relation to antibiotic initiation and how clinical characteristics and outcomes may differ. Our objective was to evaluate antibiotic initiation in relation to hypotension to characterize differences in sepsis presentation and outcomes in patients with suspected septic shock. Methods Adults presenting to the emergency department (ED) June 2012–December 2018 diagnosed with sepsis (Sepsis‐III electronic health record [EHR] criteria) and hypotension (non‐resolving for ≥30 min, systolic blood pressure 60 min after (“late”) treatment. Results Among 2219 patients, 55% received early treatment, 13% immediate, and 32% late. The late subgroup often presented to the ED with hypotension (median 0 min) but received antibiotics a median of 191 min post‐ED presentation. Clinical characteristics notable for this subgroup included higher prevalence of heart failure and liver disease (p