Severe sepsis, a syndrome characterized by systemic inflammation and acute organ dysfunction in response to infection, is a major healthcare problem affecting all age groups throughout the world. Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is a common but poorly understood neurological complication of sepsis. It is characterized by diffuse brain dysfunction secondary to infection elsewhere in the body without overt central nervous system (CNS) infection. Such cases commonly present for emergency surgical management with inadequate fasting hours, limited time for preparation, and preoperative optimization. Regional blocks become the savior in such cases where both general and central neuraxial anesthesia become perilous. Here, we present a 70-year-old male, with a case of necrotizing fascitis of the left lower limb with septic encephalopathy, with compromised cardiac or respiratory function and deranged laboratory investigations. The patient was admitted for emergency lower limb debridement, and ultrasound-guided left lower limb popliteal sciatic nerve block along with an adductor canal block was chosen as the plan of anesthesia management.

BACKGROUND: Patients with sepsis often exhibit abnormal patterns of electroencephalogram (EEG). We report an abnormal EEG pattern in a later-stage elderly patient with septic shock and EEG analysis results.
METHODS: An 88-year-old woman with bowel perforation underwent emergency Hartmann surgery. On admission to the operating room, she exhibited septic shock. Her bispectral index value was 30 before anesthesia induction, and the EEG displayed slow waves without burst and suppression throughout the surgery. The relative slow-wave ratio [spectral power (0.5-8 Hz)/(0.5-30 Hz)] from anesthetic induction to the end of surgery was 95.1%, whereas the relative alpha frequency [spectral power (8-13 Hz)/(0.5-30 Hz)] was only 2.4%. Although without preoperative neurological abnormalities, she developed postoperative delirium after admission to the intensive care unit.
CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative continuous EEG monitoring in elderly patients with sepsis may be useful to predict sepsis-associated encephalopathy. Therefore, continuous EEG monitoring may improve neurological outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is epidemic in intensive care units and recognized as a fatal complication of sepsis. SAE is characterized by diffuse brain dysfunction and the correct diagnosis of SAE requires ruling out direct central nervous system (CNS) infection or other types of encephalopathy, such as hepatic encephalopathy, pulmonary encephalopathy, and other encephalopathy.
METHODS: We reported a rare case of a 5-year-old girl who presented with abdominal pain, vomiting, recurrent seizures, and coma. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed diffuse white matter abnormalities in the brain on day 1. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests revealed that protein levels and glucose levels were normal without pleocytosis. CSF PCRs for pathogens were all negative. The electroencephalography examination demonstrated diffuse, generalized and slow background activity. The patient showed the symptom of hyperferritinemic sepsis with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). SAE was also diagnosed by ruling out other encephalitis or encephalopathy. The patient made marked improvements of clinical symptoms and the lesions on brain imaging disappeared completely within two months after appropriate treatment including antibiotic treatments, methylprednisolone, intravenous immunoglobulin, membrane-based therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), and continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT).
CONCLUSIONS: SAE can be a fatal complication of sepsis which asks for immediate diagnosis and treatment. Few reports have focus on MRI imaging findings on the early onset of hyperferritinemic sepsis with MODS since these children were too ill to undergo an MRI scan. However, SAE might appear before other systemic features of sepsis are obvious, and MRI could show abnormal lesion in the brain during the early course. Therefore, MRI should be performed early to diagnose this fatal complication which would play important roles in improving the clinical outcomes by early initiation with appropriate treatments.

BACKGROUND: Bicycle-spoke injuries rarely cause late complications of infection, including sepsis and sepsis-associated encephalopathy, with appropriate treatments.
METHODS: We experienced a 2-year-old girl who developed the signs of encephalopathy with fever 6 months after a spoke-injury. On admission, the injured skin was inflamed with cellulitis. The blood culture was positive for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Electroencephalogram showed diffuse slow-wave activity. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging detected a high-intensity lesion with decreased diffusivity at the right frontal cortex. She received immunoglobulin and combined antibiotics treatments in the intensive care unit, and successfully overcame the sepsis-associated encephalopathy without neurological impairments.
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report demonstrating that sepsis and its associated encephalopathy occurs in a remote period after the bicycle-spoke injury.

BACKGROUND: Impaired cerebral autoregulation and cerebral hypoperfusion may play a critical role in the high morbidity and mortality in patients with sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE). Bedside assessment of cerebral autoregulation may help individualize hemodynamic targets that optimize brain perfusion. We hypothesize that near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-derived cerebral oximetry can identify blood pressure ranges that enhance autoregulation in patients with SAE and that disturbances in autoregulation are associated with severity of encephalopathy.
METHODS: Adult patients with acute encephalopathy directly attributable to sepsis were followed using NIRS-based multimodal monitoring for 12 consecutive hours. We used the correlation in time between regional cerebral oxygen saturation and mean arterial pressure (MAP) to determine the cerebral oximetry index (COx) as a measure of cerebral autoregulation. Autoregulation curves were constructed for each patient with averaged COx values sorted by MAP in 3 sequential 4-hour periods; the optimal pressure (MAPOPT), defined as the MAP associated with most robust autoregulation (lowest COx), was identified in each period. Severity of encephalopathy was measured with Glasgow coma scale (GCS).
RESULTS: Six patients with extracranial sepsis met the stringent criteria specified, including no pharmacological sedation or neurologic premorbidity. Optimal MAP was identified in all patients and ranged from 55 to 115 mmHg. Additionally, MAPOPT varied within individual patients over time during monitoring. Disturbed autoregulation, based on COx, was associated with worse neurologic status (GCS < 13) both with and without controlling for age and severity of sepsis (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 2.11; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.77-2.52; P < .001; OR: 2.97; 95% CI: 1.63-5.43; P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS: In this high-fidelity group of patients with SAE, continuous, NIRS-based monitoring can identify blood pressure ranges that improve autoregulation. This is important given the association between cerebral autoregulatory function and severity of encephalopathy. Individualizing blood pressure goals using bedside autoregulation monitoring may better preserve cerebral perfusion in SAE than current practice.

The authors prospectively compared the neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes in 50 consecutive children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy admitted to intensive care unit with healthy controls. Children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy had significantly worse mean verbal IQ, full-scale IQ, General Development Score, and its physical, adaptive, social-emotional, cognitive, and communication subscales. Significant proportion of cases (52% vs 32% in controls) had low intelligence. Decline in school performance (44%), disobedience (28%), and stubbornness/irritable behavior (26%) were the most common behavior changes. Children with Glasgow Coma Scale score ≤10 and ≤8 had impairments in full-scale IQ even though overall Glasgow Coma Scale score did not show significant correlation with developmental outcomes. In conclusion, children with sepsis-associated encephalopathy have delayed neurodevelopment, low verbal IQ, decline in school performance and low intelligence at short-term follow-up. Irritability, shock and duration of sedation are associated with poor behavioral outcomes, especially scholastic performance.