In the Media: Professor Andrew Udy Warns of Lasting Mortality Risks After Sepsis and Septic Shock

Professor Andrew Udy, Deputy Director of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC‑RC) at Monash University, spoke this morning on ABC Radio National Health Report about new research revealing the long‑term consequences faced by people who survive sepsis and septic shock.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition, causing over 84,000 admissions to hospital every year. Indeed, every 20 minutes an Australian is admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with sepsis. One in seven of these cases results in a hospital death.

There is a significant lack of robust data on long‑term recovery and survival following ICU admission with sepsis and septic shock, limiting understanding of the ongoing health impacts experienced by survivors.

“There are a lot of patients that I see clinically in the hospital and the intensive care unit. They're admitted with sepsis, and thankfully a lot of those patients will survive and will make it out of the intensive care unit …. But there's not a lot of information on what happens to those patients as they transition into the community and whether or not their episode of sepsis is then associated with longer term healthcare consequences.”

A study led by Professor Andrew Udy used a large national dataset to examine the long‑term survival of patients admitted to ICU with sepsis, providing new insights into the enduring impacts of this life‑threatening condition.

The study found that septic shock was associated with a persistent excess mortality over a five‑year follow‑up period.

“We did see that septic shock was associated with an increased risk of excess mortality… 10% in additional excess mortality accounting for all of those things compared with patients that didn't have septic shock out to 5 years.”

This study underscores the need to understand why this excess mortality occurs and to strengthen post‑discharge care for people recovering from sepsis or septic shock.

“The main message here is to prompt us to look at, well, why is that happening? what are the sort of the biological mechanisms that are underlying that, and how can we… look at the services that are provided and the care that is provided to this group of patients once they are discharged from hospital?”

Rose Messiha