Urosepsis: Current therapeutic management

Despite rapid progress in all fields of medicine in recent years, sepsis an d its urological variant, urosepsis still has an unacceptably high mortalit y. The incidence of sepsis increases with advancing age of the patients, wi despread use of immunosuppressive therapy and an intensification of invasiv e diagnostic and therapeutic measures. Standard therapy of sepsis consists in drainage of the septic focus, volume substitution, antibiotics, administration of vasoconstrictive agents, cort icoids and immunoglobulins and correction of coagulation disorders. Not all of these measures have been sufficiently evaluated to date by appropriate prospective studies. Organ dysfunction is restituted by organ replacement t herapy, such as dialysis or artificial ventilation. New insight into pathophysiological changes during the course of sepsis hav e not yet translated into new therapeutic measures. However, a wide variety of studies are underway to improve the therapy of sepsis and to help reduc e mortality.